As part of the package to indefinitely extend the NPT during the 1995 Review and Extension Conference, the three NPT depository states sponsored a resolution calling on all Middle Eastern states to take “practical steps” towards “the establishment of an effectively verifiable Middle East zone free of weapons of mass destruction, nuclear, chemical and biological, and their delivery systems”. The resolution also called on non-NPT signatories to accede to the NPT and accept full-scope IAEA safeguards, and urged nuclear and non-nuclear weapon states to fully cooperate with regional efforts to create a weapons of mass destruction-free zone in the Middle East. The resolution endorsed the aims and objectives of the peace process and recognized that political reconciliation improves the prospects for a Middle East free of nuclear weapons and other WMD. Arab states hold that the resolution was the reason for their agreement to the indefinite extension of the treaty and that it is a main pillar of the NPT.

Photo credit: UN Photo/Evan Schneider

Review and Extension Conference of the NPT. Seated on the podium from left to right are: Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali; Ambassador Jayantha Dhanapala (Sri Lanka), President of the Conference; Prvoslav Davinic, Secretary-General of the Conference. April 17, 1995