A group of Arab states introduces a separate working paper at the 2017 NPT PrepCom

Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the State of Palestine, the Sudan, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen submitted a joint working paper separate to that by Egypt. The paper emphasized that the 1995 Resolution on the Middle East was the basis for the indefinite extension the NPT and that the responsibility to implement it lay with all states parties to the NPT. The paper also included actions to be taken in order to realize the zone, including achieving universality of the NPT. The Arab states called on the co-conveners of the postponed 2012 conference to provide a “complete plan and time frame for the stages of implementation of the relevant obligations” and that a “consultative process should begin under the auspices of the United Nations and the three depositaries of the Treaty, before the 2020 Review Conference.”