UN General Assembly
1978

73 In the Middle East we recently witnessed an unprecedented escalation in the quantity of weapons purchased by the Arab States, amounting to $11 billion in orders since the beginning of 1977. Indeed, over the past five years the arms agreements signed by those States mean that they have outstripped both the countries members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the countries members of the Warsaw Pact Organization in the ratio of their arms build-up. 74. Israel is prepared to play its part in the reduction of the arms race and it remains ready to enter into agreements on arms limitation with all States in the Middle East. There is no doubt, however, that the appropriate way to bring about an arms reduction in the Middle East is through peace treaties which would include limitations on armaments within their framework Indeed, the mere transformation from a state of war to one of peace will move the States involved to dedicate their resources to economic development rather than military aims.