MOSCOW. Sept 28 (Interfax) - Russia will continue working to organize an international conference to promote the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East, the newspaper Izvestia said on Friday, citing the director of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Department for Non-Proliferation and Arms Control, Vladimir Yermakov.
"Vladimir Yermakov has told Izvestia that the idea of creating a zone free from weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East has no real prospects today. In order to resume this work, it is necessary to convene an international conference on this problem," the newspaper said.
It is unlikely that such a conference can be convened in the near future, Yermakov told Izvestia.
"However, we even cannot call the conference. The Russian side made every possible effort to bring Arab countries and Israel together at the [negotiating table] and start consultations, but the United States thwarted this process at the last moment. This issue remains very acute today: if there is no work, this will undermine the foundations of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons [NPT]," he said.
"Russia's stance [on this matter] has been consistent and firm," he said.
"We will continue working with all sensible forces in the international arena in order to eventually convene such a conference," Yermakov said.
According to Izvestia, the idea of setting up a zone free from weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East has been discussed since 1995, when the First Review Conference of the Parties to the NPT was held. At the Fourth Review Conference, held in New York in 2015, the parties failed to sign the final document because of disagreements on this issue. Russia then proposed its draft document that required the UN secretary general to call a conference on this initiative no later than March 1, 2016 with a concrete agenda and an agreed text of the final document, the newspaper said.