Queen Noor: US-Russian agreement will encourage all other nuclear powers to follow suit.

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AMMAN - The world now has the best chance in a long time to achieve nuclear disarmament after the US-Russian deal in July to cut their arsenals, said Jordan's Queen Noor, widow of the late King Hussein.

"The world faces an unprecedented opportunity for nuclear disarmament after the historic commitment of the United States and Russia" to reduce the number of atomic arms, she said in an interview.

"The hope is that the US-Russian agreement will encourage all other nuclear powers to do the same," added Noor, a founder of a global plan aimed at eliminating nuclear weapons.

The US and Russian presidents, Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev, issued a July declaration in Moscow replacing a key disarmament treaty.

The declaration called for a reduction in the number of nuclear warheads in their respective strategic arsenals to between 1,500 and 1,675 within seven years and the number of ballistic missile carriers to between 500 and 1,100.

Noor is a founder of the Global Zero organisation, which includes former US president Jimmy Carter and ex-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

Global Zero, which plans to hold an international summit next February in Paris, has presented a four-step plan to help eliminate nuclear weapons by 2030.

"The initiative seeks a phased, verifiable and proportionate reduction of nuclear weapons to reach zero, and this applies to all countries without exceptions and without double standards," said the American-born queen.

"This is how we establish trust, especially in unstable regions like ours," she said of the Middle East, where Israel is the sole nuclear armed power.

The troubled Middle East "has the highest per capita spending on arms... but this does not render this region a more secure area," Noor said.

"The need for development in this region is considerable and the money spent on weapons could be allocated to human security, health, education and the environment."

She cited a Global Zero survey that "76 percent of the global public opinion is in favour of eliminating nuclear weapons."

Middle-east-online.com