In April 2010, several diplomats told Reuters that Egypt made it clear that it sees Israel as a higher priority than Iran and threatened to prevent the NPT conference from reaching any agreements if it does not get what it wants vis-Ã -vis Israel.
Egyptian initiatives at NPT meetings are nothing new, but this year they
have
issued a paper calling for an international treaty conference by 2011 to
launch
negotiations between all states of the Middle East, regarding an
internationally and effectively verifiable treaty for the establishment
of a
nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East.
At the 1995 NPT conference, member states unanimously supported a resolution backing the idea of "a Middle East zone free of nuclear weapons as well as other weapons of mass destruction."
The preamble to the NPT
calls on
nuclear weapons states "to facilitate the cessation of the manufacture
of
nuclear weapons, the liquidation of all their existing stockpiles, and
the
elimination from national arsenals of nuclear weapons and the means of
their
delivery."
Article VI of the NPT
obliges
signatories "to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures
relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to
nuclear
disarmament, and on a treaty on general and complete disarmament under
strict
and effective international control."
The three undeclared nuclear powers- India,
Pakistan and
Israel-have all refused to sign the NPT, and thus are "exempt'
from
international inspections.
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