Conclusion and Policy Recommendations

Abstract

The global arms control approach in the Middle East has followed a pattern of continuity ever since the end of the Cold War. During the 1990s, the global arms control proposals in the Middle East were built on the assumption that an Israeli monopoly of nuclear weapons would serve Western interests in the region. These proposals, which were mainly initiated by Western powers, advocated the removal of chemical and biological weapons from all Middle Eastern countries, but restricted the removal of nuclear weapons to Arab countries and Iran. In the field of nuclear weapons, the Western proposals emphasized a CBMs approach rather than a comprehensive nuclear ban approach, equivalent to the maintaining of the nuclear status quo in the form of an Israeli nuclear hegemony in the region. This period was characterized by the existence of significant differences between the Arabs and Israel on issues relating to the very basic conceptual underpinnings of arms control. Indeed, the positions of both parties were almost zero-sum, which, in combination with the West’s double-standards approach, undermined the prospects for reaching a genuine arms control regime in the Middle East.