File Photo: Centrifuges used to enrich uranium at Iran’s nuclear fuel plant. AFP
The Foreign Ministry said Cairo would push at next week’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) General Conference in Vienna (15–19 September) for universal accession to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and for all nuclear facilities in the region to be placed under IAEA safeguards.
The statement stressed the “paramount importance” of eliminating nuclear weapons from the Middle East as a fundamental step to ensure regional and international security.
It warned that failure to do so risked escalating tensions and destabilising the wider global order.
Egypt said universal adherence to the NPT and comprehensive IAEA oversight would ensure transparency, prevent double standards in handling nuclear programmes, and curb the spread of nuclear weapons in the region.
Cairo also voiced concern over the “grave threat” posed by the continued existence of nuclear weapons worldwide, urging the international community to fulfil its disarmament obligations under the NPT, one of the treaty’s core pillars.
Longstanding push
Egypt first proposed creating a Middle East nuclear-weapon-free zone at the United Nations (UN) in 1974, and the General Assembly has endorsed the initiative annually by consensus.
It signed the NPT in 1968 and ratified it in 1981, and has repeatedly warned that Israel’s refusal to join the treaty or place its nuclear sites under IAEA oversight remains the main obstacle.
In 1995, Egypt helped secure a resolution at the NPT Review and Extension Conference calling for a Middle East free of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, a decision Cairo says was central to the treaty’s indefinite extension and remains a binding international commitment.
More recently, Egypt has participated in annual UN General Assembly meetings on the issue, collaborating with the Arab League, the Non-Aligned Movement, and the African Union to maintain the initiative on the international agenda.
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