IAEA holds a workshop on Modalities for the Application of Safeguards in a future nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East

The IAEA workshop on “Modalities for the Application of Safeguards in a Future Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone in the Middle East” was aimed at familiarizing Middle Eastern experts with different modes of verification. Israel did not send an official participant to the workshop (although an unofficial observer was present) based on its stance that any future nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East should be based on a dedicated regional system of mutual verification, negotiated and implemented by the parties, without the involvement of the IAEA or other international bodies. In contrast, the formal Arab position has been to place regional verification under the control of the IAEA and subordinating the nuclear-weapon-free zone to the NPT’s global framework.