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2004 World Conference against A & H Bombs
Hiroshima
August 4, 2004
Speech by Dr. Mohamed Ezzel Din ABDEL-MONEIM
Assistant Foreign Minister, Egypt
Professor of International Law and Organization, Suez Canal University
Ladies and gentlemen,
I am honored to address the great people of Hiroshima on the themes:
“Abolition of Nuclear Weapons Now!” and “Let There Be No More Hiroshimas
and No More Nagasakis”.
It is regrettable indeed that we still live in a world armed with
nuclear weapons fifty-nine years after the bombing of Hiroshima
and Nagasaki. Fifty-nine years with nuclear weapons much more destructive
than the ones dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. An arsenal which
can destroy the whole world several times.
But they will tell us that the world already survived fifty-nine
years with nuclear weapons because nuclear weapons were never used
since Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The fact remains, however, that as long as nuclear weapons exist
every city on earth is a potential Hiroshima and a potential Nagasaki.
The reason for this is that nuclear weapons are based on false
assumptions which never came true.
First, the assumption of using nuclear weapons in combat, in battlefield,
cannot materialize and the so called “tactical” nuclear weapons
are more counter-productive than useful. Nobody would dare to take
the risk of using them. This assumption failed.
Second, the assumption of nuclear deterrence, the doctrine prevailing
in Nuclear Weapon States has brought to the world the most controversial
and the most destabilizing strategic doctrine ever known. They used
to believe that nuclear weapons deterred the Nuclear Weapon States
from attacking each other. But this assumption, which has ironically
triggered the nuclear arms race, has also failed. This is because
the essence of deterrence is rationality, and the dictates of reason.
This has already been proven during the Cuban Missile Crisis, only
thirteen years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Third, the assumption that nuclear weapons are necessary for survival.
This assumption has stuck in some minds for several years, but it
also failed. And the reason for its failure is that a country, however
strong, however large, maybe dismembered into several countries
and different entities even though it has a large and mighty nuclear
arsenal. Here again, one major nuclear assumption failed, and those
who failed to admit that, have not learnt a most important lesson
of the Cold War.
Fourth, the assumption of nuclear weapons against nuclear blackmail,
that is to say: the Nuclear Powers cannot impose anything on you
as long as you are nuclear. But going nuclear alone is not sufficient
to achieve this. It requires a massive change in every aspect of
the balance of power and you might be caught in the middle. Let
us remember the experiment of an eminent scientist where he locked
two scorpions in a bottle. While fighting, each scorpion avoided
to sting the other, but, in the end, each did and they both died.
As long as there are nuclear weapons, the whole world is a potential
Hiroshima and a potential Nagasaki.
In spite of all this, there is a big sign of hope: though nuclear
weapons remained, the arsenal of assumptions upon which they are
found have collapsed. Note that nuclear weapons are effectively
outlawed and their use is not legitimate and, thus, they remain
without any moral foundation. You, the Japanese people, like us
the Egyptians, are known to believe that the moral factor is the
essence of every action and, on this ground, we should relentlessly
persist on our campaign until the goal of abolishing nuclear weapons
is attained. Only in this way, there will be no more Hiroshimas
and no more Nagasakis.
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