Weapons of Mass Destruction in the Middle East

Treaties on Weapons of Mass Destruction

Membership in the Middle East¹

Country	NPT2	CTBT3	CWC4	Geneva Protocol5	BTWC6
Algeria	1/12/95	Signed 10/15/96	8/14/95	—	—
Egypt	2/26/81	Signed 10/14/96	—	12/6/28	Signed 4/10/72 Not ratified
Iran	2/2/70	Signed 9/24/96	11/3/97	7/4/29	8/22/73
Iraq	10/29/69	—	—	9/8/31	4/18/91
Israel	—	Signed 9/25/96	Signed 1/13/93 Not ratified	2/20/69	—
Libya	5/26/75	—	—	12/29/71	1/19/82
Saudi Arabia	10/3/88	—	8/9/96	1/27/71	5/24/72
Sudan	10/31/73	—	—	12/17/80	—
Syria	9/24/69	—	—	12/17/68	Signed 4/14/72 Not ratified
Turkey	4/17/80	Signed 9/24/96	12/5/97	10/5/29	11/5/74
United States	3/5/70	Signed 9/24/96	4/25/97	4/10/75	3/26/75
Yemen	5/14/86	Signed 9/30/96	—	3/17/71	6/1/79

Sources:

1. Unless otherwise noted, dates listed are of ratification or accession to each accord. Ratification applies to countries signing and ratifying an accord while it is open for signature, and denotes completion of domestic legal procedures necessary to comply with a treaty. Accession applies to states that deposit an instrument of ratification with a depository state after it is closed to signature. Under the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, a state is legally bound to avoid taking actions that violate the purposes of any international instrument it has signed.
          This table based on data from the Inventory of International Nonproliferation Organizations and Regimes, 1998, Monterey Institute of International Studies. US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency Fact Sheet, "Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Signatories/Ratifiers," April 7, 1998. Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, [Online] http://www.opcw.nl/. US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, [Online] http://www.acda.gov/treaties/geneva7.txt. US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency Fact Sheet, "Parties and Signatories of the Biological Weapons Convention," May 5, 1997. Arms Control and Disarmament Agreements: Texts and Histories of the Negotiations, 1996 Edition, US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, Washington, DC, US Government Printing Office.

2. Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT)
   The treaty aims to stop the spread of nuclear weapons. It was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 12 June 1968 and signed on 1 July 1968 in London, Moscow, and Washington. The vast majority of countries have signed the treaty, with the notable exceptions of India, Israel, and Pakistan. The basic provisions of the NPT are designed to: prevent the spread of nuclear weapons (Articles 1 and 2); provide assurance, through international safeguards, that the peaceful nuclear activities of states which have not already developed nuclear weapons will not be diverted to making them (Article 3); promote, to the maximum extent consistent with the other purposes of the treaty, the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, (Articles 4 and 5); and express the determination of the parties that the treaty should lead to further progress in comprehensive arms control and nuclear disarmament measures (Article 6). In 1995, 25 years after the NPT entered into force, it was voted to be extended indefinitely with a review conference every five years. As of January 1997, there were 185 parties to the NPT.
          An additional nuclear accord applies to states in the continent of Africa. Algeria, Egypt, Libya, and Sudan have also signed, but not ratified, the African Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone Treaty (The Treaty of Pelindaba), and the United States has signed its protocols. On 11 April 1996 in Cairo, 43 African nations signed the treaty to prohibit research, development, manufacturing, stockpiling, acquisition, testing, possession, control, and stationing of nuclear explosive devices in members’ territory. Signatories are required to accept full-scope IAEA safeguards for their nuclear programs. The accord has not taken legal force.

3. Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT)
   The CTBT bans all nuclear weapon explosions. The treaty aims to constrain the development and qualitative improvement of nuclear weapons, end the development of new types of nuclear weapons, encourage nuclear non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament, and foster international peace and security. As of April 1998, 149 countries have signed the CTBT, including all five declared nuclear-weapon states (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States) and 13 have ratified the treaty. The earliest it can enter into force is 24 September 1998. To do so, however, the CTBT requires that the 44 states that were members of the UN Conference on Disarmament as of 18 June 1996, and those that have research or power reactors, must deposit their instruments of ratification. Three of these 44 states (India, Pakistan, and North Korea) have not yet signed the CTBT.

4. Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC)
   The convention prohibits the development, production, stockpiling, and use of chemical weapons. Each state is required to destroy all chemical weapons and chemical weapons production facilities it possesses or that are located in any place under its jurisdiction or control, as well as any chemical weapons it abandoned on the territory of another state. The CWC was opened for signature on 13 January 1993. As of February 1998, 168 countries have signed the CWC, and 107 have ratified the accord.

5. Geneva Protocol
   The "Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare" prohibits the use in war of asphyxiating, poisonous, or other gases, and bans bacteriological warfare. It was signed on 17 June 1925, and as of September 1997, 145 states have ratified or acceded to the accord. In joining the Geneva Protocol, most parties made reservations to the effect that they would abide by its terms as long as other states did not resort to the use of chemical weapons.

6. Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC)
   The "Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on Their Destruction" prohibits the development, production, or stockpiling of bacteriological and toxin weapons. Countries must destroy or divert to peaceful purposes all agents, toxins, weapons, equipment, and means of delivery within nine months after the entry into force of the convention. It was signed on 10 April 1972, entered into force on 26 March 1975, and is of unlimited duration. As of May 1997, 158 states had signed the BTWC, and 140 had ratified the accord.

Prepared by Michael Barletta and Christina Ellington,
© Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Monterey Institute of International Studies. May 1998

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