Towards a WMD-Free Middle-East
28 January
2004
The Middle East has long
been plagued by conflict and tension, with the likelihood still great
that conflict there could lead to the use of nuclear or other weapons
of mass destruction.
One recent positive development,
however - Colonel Qadhafi's decision to dismantle Libya's facilities
for manufacturing weapons of mass destruction (WMD) - could provide
a window for both improving political stability in the area and strengthening
international efforts to prevent nuclear and WMD proliferation. Qadhafi's
initiative, most likely stemming from a desire to end the sanctions
imposed on Libya, would become even more significant if emulated by
other countries either possessing or seeking nuclear and WMD weapons.
When placed in the context
of other developments in the Middle East and neighboring regions,
including increased Iranian cooperation with the International Atomic
Energy Agency and the ending of the civil war in Sudan, there are
reasons to hope that decades of stalemate on the issue of Middle East
peace, and weapons of mass destruction, might come to an end.
Major obstacles remain,
of course, the main one being Israel's possession of nuclear weapons.
In order for there to be any prospect of a Middle East/North Africa
free of all weapons of mass destruction, Israel and her Arab neighbors
must follow the Libyan example of agreeing to total dismantlement
of all WMD capabilities, under international supervision.
More broadly, this process
would be greatly facilitated if the United States, Russia, and the
other major nuclear powers lived up to their obligations, under the
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, to move expeditiously toward the
complete elimination of nuclear weapons. Not only have the nuclear
powers failed to make adequate progress in this regard, the US administration
in particular seems poised to develop new types of nuclear weapons.
Unless the established nuclear powers demonstrate good faith and real
progress towards eliminating their weapons, there is little prospect
of other nuclear weapons countries and would-be proliferators following
suit.
Until then, the world
will face the continued threat that conflict in the Middle East, or
elsewhere, could easily escalate to the use of nuclear weapons.
