Steps towards the establishment of such a zone began in the 1960s led to a joint declaration by Egypt and Iran in 1974 which resulted in a General Assembly resolution (broadened in 1990 through the Mubarak Initiative to cover all weapons of mass destruction). The
United Nations Security Council Resolution 687 (the ceasefire ending the
Gulf War) recognizes the goal of establishing the MENWFZ (para 14). The 1995
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review and Extension Conference, in connection with the decision to extend the NPT indefinitely, adopted a resolution on the Middle East calling for a Middle East zone free of all weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems. The
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) held a series of meetings involving experts and academics to consider ways to advance this process. Following pressure from Egypt and the
Arab League, the 2010 NPT Review Conference called for holding a conference on a MENWFZ which would primarily press Israel to end its policy of ambiguity. Finland planned to host such an event in 2012. However, no agreement was reached on the agenda and other issues, and the conference was called off in November 2012. An international group of concerned citizens, including former members of the Israeli
Knesset, responded to the lack of progress in official talks by organizing an International Conference For A WMD-Free Middle East. It was held in
Haifa in December 2013. In September 2013, there was an initiative for a weapons of mass destruction free zone (WMDFZ) in the Middle East. As at January 2014, the Secretary-General of
UNODA has received letters confirming support for declaring the Middle East a region free from weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. Such letters have been received from all members of the Arab League (except for Syria): Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen, and from permanent observer Palestine. Syria has not sent such a letter.) As of 2014, three countries in the Middle East have been found in non-compliance with their IAEA safeguards obligations under the NPT:
Iraq,
Iran and
Syria. Of these cases, Iran and Syria remain unresolved. In 2017, civil society activists and disarmament experts established the
Middle East Treaty Organization (METO) to create opportunities for track 1.5 and track 2 diplomatic efforts, and generally advocate for a WMDFZ in the Middle East (MEWMDFZ). As an international
non-governmental organization (NGO), METO's mission is in the spirit of the 2013 initiatives calling to expand the proposed MENWFZ to all weapons of mass destruction. Since their founding, METO has organized a series of roundtable conferences and negotiations among Middle Eastern diplomats, security experts, and former diplomats to negotiate on a draft treaty text for establishing such a zone. The draft treaty text facilitated by METO's process was brought to the
United Nations General Assembly by
Egypt on 22 December 2018, alongside a proposal to launch an annual conference to discuss the zone. The UN General Assembly resolved to convene an annual meeting on the establishment of a Middle East WMDFZ. The first annual conference was held from 18 November to 22 November 2019 at
UN Headquarters in New York, presided over by the
UN Permanent Representative from
Jordan. Almost all states of the region attended the conference, including the 22 members of the Arab League and Iran, as well as four
nuclear-armed states China, France, Russia, and the United Kingdom, alongside other observer states and international organizations. The only regional country that did not participate was Israel. They agreed to meet again from 16 to 20 November 2020. That meeting was postponed until 29 November 2021 - 03 December 2021 because of
COVID. The third conference was held 14–18 November 2022, with the fourth scheduled for 13 to 17 November 2023. ==Positions==