Al-Kabeer was inaugurating a workshop about weapons of mass destruction at the King Faisal Hall in Riyadh. The Kingdom announced its decision at the Nuclear Security Summit held in Washington on April 12-13 to organize this Gulf Cooperation Council workshop in cooperation with the competent authorities of the United Nations Security Council.

Unanimously adopted on April 28, 2004, Resolution 1540 obliges all states to refrain from providing any form of support to nonstate actors that may attempt to develop, acquire, manufacture, possess, transport, transfer or use nuclear, chemical or biological weapons and their means of delivery.

Under the resolution, all states are to establish domestic controls to prevent the proliferation of such weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery, including by establishing appropriate controls over related materials.

“The workshop is an important event to strengthen regional and global efforts in support of a full implementation of the resolution,” said Al-Kabeer. “Accordingly, Saudi Arabia participated in many important conferences and meetings aimed at averting such dangers.”

The workshop organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in cooperation with a number of government organizations is aimed at shedding light on the diplomatic efforts on both regional and international levels to demand the nonproliferation of such weapons.

Naif bin Bandar Al-Sudairy, undersecretary at the ministry, said that within the framework of the workshop, the Kingdom is looking forward to consolidating cooperation to work for the security and stability of the region.

In the process of establishing guidelines to monitor radioactive and nuclear materials, Al-Sudairy said the Kingdom is working on strengthening the means of monitoring the transport and smuggling of radioactive, nuclear and other hazardous materials across its borders to combat such illegal trade.