Skip to main content
LinkedInFacebookTwitter

“Mubarak initiative” expands the scope of the nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East to include all WMD

Row 22

Proposed by Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak, the initiative expanded the concept of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East to include all weapons of mass destruction. The initiative calls on all states of the region to make equal and reciprocal commitments, and to establish verification measures and modalities to ascertain complete compliance by the states in the region


Photo credit: UN Photo

President Mohamed Hosni Mubarak of Egypt. June 09, 1983

Explore context

One of the key drivers of broadening the scope of a Middle East zone to cover all WMD was the threat posed to the region by the threats made by Iraq’s Saddam Hussein of using chemical weapons against Israel led Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir warned Iraq not to "lay a finger on Israel" lest President Saddam Hussein "pay a terrible price for his blunder". Although the letter from Egypt’s Minister informing the UN Secretary-General of the Mubarak initiative did not mentions this explicitly, it did state that “recent developments in the region have further underscored the importance and urgency of safeguarding the Middle East from the ominous implications associated with nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction."