The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Monday that Egypt has withdrawn from the second session of the Preparatory Committee for the United Nations Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference currently being held in Geneva. The decision to withdraw from the committee, according to a ministry statement, is in protest against “the continued failure of the conference" to implement a 1995 resolution to establish a nuclear weapon free zone in the Middle East. The ministry highlighted that the decision to postpone a conference to establish a zone free of nuclear weapons in the Middle East violated the decision made in the 2010 NPT conference to hold the conference in 2012. The ministry added that this “may affect the credibility of the NPT system". In its statement the ministry said: “The goal of the Egyptian decision is to send a strong message that it does not accept the continued lack of seriousness in dealing with the issue of establishing a zone free of nuclear weapons in the Middle East." The ministry pointed out that this issue is “an essential part of Egyptian national and Arab security and impacts upon international security and stability." The ministry accused “some of the parties to the NPT, as well as some non-state parties" of hindering the establishment of the conference. It added that Egypt has sought the establishment of a nuclear weapon free zone since the launch of the initiative at the United Nations in 1974. It called on the member states of the treaty, the UN, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and the international community to uphold their responsibility in implementing resolutions. Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohamed Kamel Amr announced Egypt was heading an initiative to hold the conference but was waiting for “key players, especially the UN, to fulfil their obligations". The conference was originally scheduled to take place in 2012, but was postponed by the four sponsors of the conference, the UN, the United States, Russia and the United Kingdom. The conference was postponed because not all states in the region had agreed to attend. At the time of the original postponement the ministry and the Arab League both placed the blame on Israel's lack of cooperation. The meeting of the second session of the NPT Review Conference began on 22 April in preparation for a 2015 conference. Last week, during one of the preparatory meetings, Egypt urged Israel to sign the NPT and to place all its nuclear facilities under IAEA safeguards.
