With the accession of Oman to the NPT in 1997, Israel became the only state in the Middle East that was not a member of the treaty. Egypt believed it an important step to convince all Arab states to join the treaty in order to demonstrate the seriousness of the Arab Group in pursuing the ME WMDFZ and undermine Israel’s argument that it should not be singled out in multilateral forums by making sure it became the only state in the region that was not party to the treaty. The consensus final document of the 2000 NPT RevCon noted that Israel is the only state in the Middle East that remains outside the NPT.

Photo credit: UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan addressing the 2000 NPT RevCon. April 24, 2000.