The Challenges and Obstacles of Conclusion of Regional Treaty of the Middle East Free of Nuclear Weapons

The tendency towards creation of zones free of nuclear weapon is one of the ways to move towards a world free of nuclear weapon. This trend in the Middle East goes back to 1970s and despite apparent and numerous supports for it, the practical progress was not promising. This suggestion was first presented for the first time by Iran and was supported by Egypt. The approval of resolution about the Middle East free of nuclear weapons in the NPT Review Conference in 1995 was an important progress on this issue. The conference extended the NPT for an unlimited period and approved the nuclear weapons free zone for the Middle East and encouraged persuasion of this plan. Iran, Israel and the United States are the main and determining players during these years. The question raised by the present article is “what are the most important challenges and obstacles on the way of creation of nuclear weapons free Middle East zone?” The paper by a descriptive-analytical method first describes the nuclear weapons free zones and then evaluates the creation of nuclear weapon free zone in the Middle East and the challenges and obstacles on the way of formation of such a treaty. The paper concludes that the existence of Israel nuclear weapon and non-membership of this country in NPT and adopting nuclear deterrence strategy has led to serious obstacles on the way of formation of nuclear weapons free zone.