Research Of The Nuclear-weapon-free Zone In The Middle East

Thirty years has passed since Egypt and Iran proposed the establishment of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East in1974. Up to now, the proposal has still not received much progress. The result is mainly due to the region’s poor security situation and Five Big Powers’negative attitude on the issue. With the occurrence of the9·11event, the fight against terrorism and prevention from the proliferation of mass destruction weapons have become the top priority of the international community, which make the revival of the program a high possibility. At the8th Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in May2010, the program was put on the agenda by international community once again. The General Assembly of the United Nations decided to convene an international conference in2012on this issue. On November21,2011, The International Atomic Energy Agency also held a forum in Vienna to explore how to learn the experience from the existing six nuclear-weapon-free zones in order to promote the construction of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East more smoothly. At this point, the hope of construction of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East is reappearing.Currently, the nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East is still a concept because relative parties still hold substantially different views on the specific steps and measures towards the establishment of it while they theoretically agree on its construction. On the one hand, some countries believe that the basis of the establishment of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East must be the radical improvement of the poor security situation in the region, On the other hand, other countries think that facing the deterioration of regional security environment, the establishment of nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East will probably help to build mutual trust between countries in the region, thereby improving the security atmosphere in the Middle East. In this regard, the paper has three purposes:firstly, combine and analysis the attitudes of the international community and the region’s countries to the nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East; secondly, in line with the embarrassment, impasse and the complex security environment in the Middle East, the author suggests that the pursuit and employment of nuclear weapons serves nobody’s interests in the region, thereby a nuclear-weapon-free zone beneficiary to all countries as well as the whole region. Thirdly, the paper also explores the ways and prospects for the establishment of nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East and proposes some practical measures according to Middle East’s typical security characteristics and experiences from existing nuclear-weapon-free zones.