On 26 February 1981, Egypt ratified the NPT. In a letter to the UN Secretary-General, dated 24 April 1981, Egypt explained that it is a demonstration of its commitment to the establishment of nuclear-weapon-free zone and the support of all states in the Middle East for the resolution on the “Establishment of a Nuclear-weapon-free zone in the region of the Middle East” which had encouraged it to ratify the treaty. This marked a change in Egypt’s previous position regarding ratifying the NPT, where it conditioned its ratification of the treaty on Israel’s accession to it.
Resolution on the “Establishment of a Nuclear-weapon-free zone in the region of the Middle East” is adopted without a vote at the UN General Assembly
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For the first time, the resolution on the “Establishment of a Nuclear-weapon-free zone in the region of the Middle East” is adopted without a vote at the UN General Assembly. The draft resolution, submitted by Egypt, called on all states in the Middle East to adhere to the NPT, place all their nuclear activities under IAEA safeguards, and declare that they will not produce, test, acquire, or station nuclear weapons on their territory until a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East is established. A separate draft resolution was also submitted by Israel and included a call for all states in the Middle East and non-nuclear-weapon states adjacent to the region which are not members of a nuclear-weapon-free zone to attend a conference to negotiate a nuclear-weapon-free zone. Despite its reservations, Israel ultimately decided to withdraw its draft resolution and vote in favour of the Egyptian draft resolution “as an earnest of [its] goodwill and support for the idea of the establishment of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East”, thus creating consensus on the resolution.
Photo credit: UN Photo/Yutaka Nagata
Session of the 1984 UN General Assembly