Middle East nuclear weapon free zone

The Middle East nuclear weapon free zone (MENWFZ) is a proposed agreement similar to other nuclear-weapon-free zones. Steps towards the establishment of such a zone began in the 1960s, with Egypt and Iran calling for it via a 1974 joint declaration and United Nations General Assembly resolution. Following the 1995 NPT Review Conference, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) held a series of meetings involving experts and academics to consider ways to advance this process.

Such a zone would strengthen the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), would help to promote global nuclear disarmament, and would also help the Middle East peace as substantial confidence-building measures. As of 2025, Israel is the only Middle Eastern country widely believed to possess nuclear weapons, and only non-party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Under its Begin Doctrine, it has carried out airstrikes on nuclear facilities in Iraq, Syria, and Iran. Additionally, United States nuclear weapons are stored in Turkey under NATO nuclear sharing. As of 2014, three countries in the Middle East have been found in non-compliance with their IAEA safeguards obligations under the NPT: Iraq, Iran and Syria. Of these cases, Syria remains unresolved.

In 1990, Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak expanded the UN proposal, to prohibit all weapons of mass destruction. International inspection of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction capabilities played a central role in the Gulf War and Iraq War. Modern challenges for the expanded proposal include Israeli chemical and biological capabilities, and the remnants of the Ba'athist Syria's chemical weapons program.