Israel’s nuclear arms programme was seen as the major obstacle to achieving a nuclear weapons free zone in the Middle East, declassified files from 1993 show.
An agreement to introduce such a zone could have curbed Iran’s nuclear ambitions which were then described as being at an “early stage”.
While the UK government supported a nuclear weapons-free zone in the Middle East at this time, officials in the Foreign Office saw the “chief problem” to its implementation being Israel’s failure to sign up the UN’s Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). That treaty, signed in 1970, committed non-nuclear states not to acquire them. Iran is a signatory to the NPT and had jointly proposed with Egypt the introduction of a nuclear weapons-free zone in 1974. In 1991, Egypt wrote to the UN Secretary General calling on the permanent members of the UN Security Council and also Israel, Iran and the Arab states, to formally endorse such a zone.
A June 1993 memo from Foreign Office official Jane Govier to Simon Buckle in the Middle East Department referenced Egypt’s letter and stated that the “the UK is in favour” of a nuclear weapons-free zone in the Middle East “and we lend support to the idea in the relevant fora”. “However, we have never formally responded to the above letter and neither, to our knowledge, have the other permanent Security Council members. The chief problem in any case is one of the regional suspicions, including Israel’s failure to sign the NPT”. ‘Early stages’ At the time, the Foreign Office believed Iran was exploring nuclear options. Govier wrote that “Although we have no direct evidence, we believe that Iran is pursuing a secret nuclear weapons programme in contravention of their obligations as a non-nuclear weapon state party to the Non-Proliferation Treaty”.
She added: “At present Iran is in the early stages of creating a nuclear R&D infrastructure and lacks key facilities which would enable it to produce the fissile material necessary for a nuclear weapon”.
She wrote that the “best way” to achieve a nuclear weapons free zone in the Middle East “would be for all states in the region to accede to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and place all their nuclear facilities under a safeguards agreements [sic] with the International Atomic Energy Agency”. “However”, she added, “the participation of all states in the region, including Israel, would be necessary, and more progress will probably need to be made in the Middle East Peace Process before this is possible.”
US concerns about Iran were similar to Britain’s. An American document contained in the British archives states: “Iran could become another Iraq – with weapons of mass destruction programs far advanced and extremely difficult to stop or even slow… We need to prevent this from happening”. It added: “Fortunately, Iran’s programs are at a relatively early stage of development. We thus have a crucial window of opportunity to stem Iranian proliferation.”
The evidence suggests this window of opportunity was never capitalised on as neither the UK nor the US seriously pushed for a nuclear weapons free zone in the Middle East. Sir Richard Dalton, who served as Britain’s ambassador to Iran during 2002-06, told us: “The Middle East nuclear weapons-free zone has long been a most promising proposal to underpin security for all in the region, but it has foundered, like so many other initiatives, on the rock of Israel’s US-backed insistence on standing against multilateral solutions”.
Questions are currently being asked about Israel’s nuclear arsenal following attacks over the weekend by Iran near Israel’s main nuclear facility at Dimona in the Negev desert. Iran’s missile attacks on the city of Dimona follow thousands of air strikes by Israel on Iran since late February. RELATED Revealed: Britain secretly believes Israel has nuclear weapons, but won’t... declassifieduk.org/revealed-britain-secretly-believes-israel-has-nuclear-weapons-but-wont-admit-it/">aware by the early 1980s that Israel was already a nuclear-armed power. But neither then, nor even still today, do they admit their knowledge of this open secret.
In January 1992, Margaret Thatcher’s foreign secretary Douglas Hurd issued instructions to British diplomats in Moscow to lobby the Russian government not to sell nuclear reactors to Israel or Iran. He wrote: “Like the Americans we too are worried about the proliferation implications of these sales. There are considerable concerns about the nuclear programmes of both states [Iran and Israel]. “Israel has a substantial, sophisticated and largely unsafeguarded nuclear programme. Although a party to the NPT, Iran seems to have nuclear ambitions out of scale with any possible need for nuclear energy.”
“On Israel”, Hurd added, “you should refer to the recent speculation, point out the concerns about the Israeli nuclear programme, and ask them to reconsider the deal”. UN discussions Discussions in the United Nations about a nuclear weapons free zone in the Middle East have continued over the decades. In recent UN General Assembly resolutions, Iran has voted in favour of the zone, along with over 100 countries, but Israel has abstained. The UN secretary general’s report of July 2024 notes that “Many States expressed their concern at the negative impact on regional security and stability owing to the possession of nuclear weapons by Israel”. It also refers to “many States calling on Israel to accede to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and submit all its nuclear facilities to IAEA comprehensive safeguards”.
Israel has long refused to sign the NPT and is known to be a significant nuclear-armed power that is currently modernising its nuclear arsenal.
The most recent substantive international discussion on the issue of a nuclear weapons free zone in the Middle East was a UN General Assembly conference in November last year which was attended by 22 member states and four observer states, including the UK. The UN report from the meeting notes: “Members to the Conference identified as a key challenge the continued absence of Israel from the sessions. They noted with regret that the United States of America was the only invited observer State that had not yet attended.”
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