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Objectives

The project aims to maintain momentum generated by the Conference annual sessions and to support States¡¯ political and substantive negotiation process of a legally binding instrument to establish the Middle East zone free of nuclear weapons and other weapons of destruction, through providing support to States of the Middle East to undertake substantive intersessional work. It specially provides support to the working committee established in accordance with the decision by the Conference to carry out substantive and outreach activities in the Conference¡¯s intersessional period.

Components

This project supports the holding of at least two meetings of the working committee annually in 2023 and 2024 to allow participating States of the Middle East region to continue the substantive deliberations on key building blocks of the zone treaty during the intersessional periods and report back to the next conference; to organize one expert meeting annually in 2023 and 2024 as an informal platform for more in-depth expert-level deliberations on the afore-mentioned topics of the working committee related to the establishment of an effectively verifiable Middle East zone; and to enable participation by the Secretary-General or alternate to annual Middle East regional conferences where the issue of the MENWMDFZ is one of the main topics discussed.

Main achievements

The project supported the work, both organizational and substantive, of the annual Conference on the Establishment of the Middle East Zone Free of Nuclear Weapons and Other Weapons of Mass Destruction, and its intersessional working committee. It contributed to sustaining and furthering the momentum generated by the previous annual sessions of the Conference. The project organized and supported three meetings of the working committee per year which discussed a ¡°glossary of terminologies¡± and ¡°general principles and obligation of the future treaty¡± (in 2023) and ¡°peaceful uses and technical cooperation¡±, ¡°nuclear verification¡± and ¡°index of topics to be addressed by future sessions of the Conference¡± (in 2024). The meetings¡¯ outcomes were reflected in summaries produced by the Presidency with the support of the project and were endorsed by the fourth and fifth sessions of the Conference in November 2023 and 2024, respectively.

The project supported preparations for the fourth and fifth sessions of the Conference and Conference¡¯s Presidents (Libya and Mauritania, respectively) by organizing several informal consultations ahead of each annual Conference. These consultations played a crucial role in reaching agreement on procedural and substantive aspects ahead of the Conference session that facilitated focused discussions at each session based on the Conference¡¯s mandate and its report.

In addition, in 2024, the project co-organized, together with the State of Qatar, a regional meeting in Doha in June to assess the progress made by the previous four sessions of the Conference as well as to discuss the way forward for the conference including possible improvements to the priorities and working methods. The decision to move the venue of Main Activity from New York to Doha was made at the request of the President and participating States of the Conference, following Qatar¡¯s offer to host regional event with participation of experts of the regional states.

Impact

The project plays a pivotal role in keeping the momentum of the Conference process and facilitating progress toward achieving the mandate of the Conference by supporting a more focused and in-depth deliberation by participating States on key building blocks of the Middle East zone treaty.

First Informal Consultation

Working Committee Meeting, July 2023