Manama: Kuwait has said that it supports the right of the United Kingdom, or other countries where a chemical attack is carried out, to launch the necessary investigations and take the required measures to protect its national security and bring to justice those involved in this criminal act.

Kuwait’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Mansour Al Otaibi made the statement during an emergency UN Security Council session called by the UK to discuss the letter from the British charge d’affaires to the Security Council President about the attempted assassination of a former Russian spy and his daughter by a nerve agent in the British city of Salisbury.

“The council is meeting today to discuss the issue of the use of chemical weapons, and we express our concern here about the assassination attempt in Salisbury. This crime endangers the security and safety of civilians and could have ramifications on relations between member states,” Al Otaibi said, quoted by Kuwait News Agency (Kuna) on Thursday.

The official added that Kuwait’s principled and firm stance is to condemn any use, production, possession, stockpiling or maintaining, or transfer of chemical weapons, directly or indirectly.

The stance is based on Article One of the Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and Kuwait calls upon all states that had ratified it to abide by its provisions and to eliminate their stockpiles of toxic chemicals, he said.

“The UK has called for this meeting because it considers what has happened on its territory a hostile act that violates international norms and agreements relevant to chemical weapons,” he said.

All states with a responsibility towards international peace and security and all those that have consistently expressed their commitment to the Charter of the United Nations should take clear and sincere steps towards creating a world free of nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction, the Kuwaiti diplomat said.

Resolution 2325 adopted by the Security Council in 2016 affirms that the proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons as well as their means of delivery poses a threat to international peace and security, he added.

Kuwait began its two-year membership at the UN Security Council on January 1 after a 40-year hiatus. The northern Arabian Gulf country replaced Egypt as the representative of the Arab Group in the UN after 188 of 193 UN voted in its favour, prompting Kuwaiti officials to say that it was a sign of the international community’s trust in their nation.

Kuwait said it would remain neutral as it worked with the other member states to peacefully end the world’s ongoing conflicts and wars. It also stressed the importance of reforms within the UN’s various organisations to allow them to properly perform their duties across the world.