| Publication |
2011.
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| Summary/Abstract |
The idea of a nuclear-weapon-free zone (NWFZ) in the Middle East had its genesis in
1962, when a committee of highly respected Israeli intellectuals-the Committee for the
Denuclearization of the Middle East-first put forward the concept publicly in April of that
year, stating that they viewed the development of nuclear weapons "to constitute a danger
to Israel and to peace in the Middle East" urging the United Nations to intervene "to prevent
military nuclear production".1
The concept was then formally set in political motion in 1974
through a joint Egyptian-Iranian General Assembly resolution calling for the establishment of
such a zone.2
In 1990 Egypt expanded on the proposal calling for a zone free of all weapons of
mass destruction (WMD), judging that a more comprehensive approach to disarmament may
prove attractive to the full range of states in the region. In 1995 the Arms Control and Regional
Security (ACRS) talks collapsed-in part due to disagreements between Israel and Egypt on
the sequencing of discussions on the zone.3
Earlier in 1995, as an integral part of the decision
to extend the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) indefinitely, the NPT
Review and Extension Conference adopted the 1995 resolution on the Middle East,4
which was
co-sponsored by the three depositary states-the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom
and the United States-and:
Calls upon all States in the Middle East to take practical steps in appropriate
forums aimed at making progress towards, inter alia, the establishment of an
effectively verifiable Middle East zone free of weapons of mass destruction,
nuclear, chemical and biological, and their delivery systems, and to refrain from
taking any measures that preclude the achievement of this objective;
Calls upon all States party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear
Weapons, and in particular the nuclear-weapon States, to extend their
cooperation and to exert their utmost efforts with a view to ensuring the early
establishment by regional parties of a Middle East zone free of nuclear and all
other weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems
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