Egypt to participate in Middle East WMD-Free Zone

CAIRO – 18 November 2019: The first session of the Conference on the Establishment of a Middle East Zone Free of Nuclear Weapons and Other Weapons of Mass Destruction will kick off on November 18th in the United States. Egypt will participate in the conference.

The conference will extend until November 22nd, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. Egypt's and Middle Eastern delegations will take part in the conference. Also, the five nuclear-weapon states – the US, Britain, France, Russia, and China, were also invited to attend.

Ambassador Sima Bahous, Jordan's Permanent Representative to the UN, will be the president-designate of the First Session.

The conference comes amid growing tensions over Iran's nuclear program, as Tehran announced reducing its commitment to the 2015 nuclear deal, which has been floundering since President Donald Trump pulled the US from the deal.

"The conference shall aim to elaborate a legally binding treaty establishing a Middle East zone free of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction, on the basis of arrangements freely arrived at by the states of the region," the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs said in a press release.