Egypt is pushing for concrete steps to rid the world of nuclear weapons during the non-proliferation review summit at the United Nations headquarters in New York City.
Hisham Badr, Egypt’s permanent representative at the UN, presented the summit with a number of suggestions developed by the New Agenda Coalition, of which Egypt is a leading member. The demands include practical steps to rid the world of nuclear arms, such as: scaling down the nuclear alert status by nuclear states, diminishing the role of nuclear arms in military policy, reinforcing transparency and confidence-boosting measures, and providing non-nuclear states with safety guarantees.
Egypt’s proposals shed light on the importance of reviewing the enforcement of disarmament measures, reminding nuclear states of their obligations in the non-proliferation treaty, particularly its sixth article, which stipulates total disarmament. Egypt also called for globalizing the treaty and the creation of nuclear-free zones until a nuclear-free world is achieved.
Badr called on Israel to sign the treaty without preconditions and to open its nuclear facilities to international supervision. He stressed the necessity of enforcing the decision taken in the 1995 review, which designated the Middle East as a nuclear-free zone.
The New Agenda Coalition is composed of Egypt, Brazil, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, and Sweden. Together, these countries seek complete nuclear disarmament.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
