Firstly: A Brief Overview.
1-The Third NPT PrepCom Committee was held in New York from 29 April to 10 May 2019; Malaysia’s Ambassador Syed Md Hasrin Syed Hussin and the Permanent Representative of Malaysia to the United Nations in New York was the Chair of the 2019 PrepCom. 150 of the states-parties to the Treaty participated in this PrepCom. None of the non NPT states requested to participate in this PrepCom as an observer. Mr.Ian Tudas, Head of the Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) Branch at The United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) undertook the duty of Secretary of the Committee, and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) participated in the proceedings of this PrepCom.
2-Egypt’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Mohamed Idris, headed the Egyptian delegation to the Third PrepCom. The Egyptian delegation included members of the Egyptian Permanent Mission to the United Nations (UN) in New York, Minister Plenipotentiary Ahmed Khaled Al-Fadhli, Director of Disarmament Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Mr. Ahmed Saeid, Second Secretary for the Foreign Minister’s Cabinet. On instructions of Foreign Minister, Chairman of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs Ambassador/Dr. Mounir Zahran joined the Egyptian delegation as adviser.
3-It was also decided to convene the 2020 Review Conference (The 2020 NPT RevCon) in New York during the period from 27 April to 22 May 2020 under the Chairmanship of a representative from the Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC) that has nominated Ambassador Rafael Mariano Grossi, Ambassador of Argentina to Austria for the presidency of the 2020 NPT RevCon.
Secondly: Commentary and Evaluation
1- A top priority of global public opinion is upholding human rights; chief among these rights is the right to life. Hence the chief among the priorities of global public opinion was nuclear disarmament and freeing the world of such most lethal and destructive weapon. The vast majority of civil society organizations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) put this issue among its top priorities. ECFA has proposed, within the framework of the general debate of the Three Preparatory Committees, amendment of the rules and procedures of the NPT 2020 Review Conference (The 2020 NPT RevCon) so as to permit the participation of such organizations in reviewing all provisions of the treaty in the Three Preparatory Committees for the Review Conference (NPT RevCon) and not only in the general debate; along the same lines of practice as in the Human Rights Council permitting non-governmental organizations that so request, to interfere in the debates after concluding the list of speakers from the states parties. Hence we propose that this issue be raised within the framework of preparations for the conference via regional groups and the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), so that, in case of approval, one of such groups shall propose an amendment to the rules of procedure which will be discussed at the outset of the conference.
2-Although failure of the next conference is a likely possibility, Amb. Zahran emphasize the significance of letting all know that Egypt is getting well prepared for the conference, hoping for its success, and whatever initiatives or proposals we make are intended to increase the opportunities for success of the conference, though precedents indicate that until now, there are Two successive NPT Review Conferences (NPT RevCons) have ever not failed like the following failure of the Two NPT Review Conferences (NPT RevCons) in 2005 and 2015; though the Middle East region was the stated reason that has been alleged to be the cause of failure of both conferences, but the true reasons were the issues of nuclear disarmament and freeing the world of such lethal weapon. Whereas, nuclear-armed states (The nuclear-weapon states (NWS)), and states that have boycotted the Treaty and preferred not to join it, insist on possessing nuclear weapons; they are, namely: Israel, India, Pakistan, and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, some of which adhere to the policy of “No First Use (NFU)” which means there is a possibility of its utilization in case of necessity.
3-Even though the Egyptian Initiative to prompt the issuance of a resolution from the General Assembly at its 73rd session through a call by the UN Secretary General for a conference on establishing a Weapons of Mass Destruction Free Zone (WMDFZ) in the Middle East and that has been scheduled to be held in New York from 18th to 22nd of November 2019, but the possibilities of failure of such conference are more likely than its success opportunities after failing to implement the 1995 Conference resolution on the Middle East and failing to convene an independent conference on the Middle East, which had been called for by the 2010 NPT Review Conference (The 2010 NPT RevCon), since 2012, particularly that both Israel and the United States (USA) announced that they would not participate in such conference, also Britain and France were not enthusiastic regarding participation in that conference. Therefore, as a consequence, it is expected that the Secretary General of the 2020 NPT Review Conference (The 2020 NPT RevCon) would submit a negative report on that conference in spite of the appropriation of funds equivalent to 1.07 Million Dollars for conference expenses; it would be futile, as to what heard from the delegations of the Preparatory Committee, for the Secretary General to call again for reconvening the conference with the provision of the same appropriation of at least 1.07 Million Dollars each time.
4-Regardless of Israel’s stances which are supported by the United States , Egypt’s accession to the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) might be considered, as by acceding to these Two treaties Egypt shall not be entailed any additional commitments considering that Egypt is one of the states parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), “that is to say that Egypt is already prohibited from producing or possessing nuclear weapons”.
