NEW YORK — Iran's development of nuclear power provides an opportunity for reaching an accord on a Middle East nuclear weapons-free zone (NWFZ). Talks between Iran and representatives of the United States, Britain, Germany, France, Russia and China can help develop a consensus to ward off a possible Israeli or U.S. attack on Iran.
The call for such a zone in the Middle East was first issued in 1974. That year the U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution calling for all countries in the region "to declare that they will refrain from producing, acquiring or in any way possessing nuclear weapons and nuclear explosive devices, and from permitting the stationing of nuclear weapons in their territory by any third party."
On Sept. 17, in a nonbinding ballot, the International Atomic Energy Agency adopted a resolution, 100-1 with four abstentions, urging all Mideast nations to forswear atomic bombs. Israel voted "no" because the resolution retained a clause calling "upon all states in the region to accede" to the Nonproliferation Treaty.