Egypt has a distinct place in the history of humanity in both the past and present. Its position, role, and impact are grounded fundamentally from its culture and evolution. Even recently, after undergoing the current of democratic ups and down, the country has demonstrated to the whole that the will of the people cannot be violated (Bahgat, 2017). Nuclear weapons are the greatest threat to the global unity and security because of a small portion of nuclear material on a region where it has been launched.
Egypt has always assumed a stern position against the readiness, utilization, and proliferation of nuclear weapons. Consequently, the nation has endorsed and implemented the Treaty of Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in 1968 (Bahgat, 2017). It also endorsed the African Nuclear Weapon Free Zone Treaty. It has signed and passed the Partial Test Ban Treaty in 1963 (Siracusa & Warren, 2018). Egypt has endorsed and ratified Outer space Treaty in 1967 and later endorsed the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-ban Treaty in 1996.
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Gamal Nasser that later became the second president of Egypt in 1954 also led his nation’s first significant ventures into nuclear technology. Nasser is the one who began the Egyptian Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) one year after being president. The AEC developed to become the Atomic Energy Establishment (AEE) in 1956, an institution presently called the Atomic Energy Authority (AEA) (Siracusa & Warren, 2018). For about a decade, the AEE considered remarkable steps in developing an Egyptian nuclear technology and acquired facilities. It is not known whether Nasser wanted the Egyptian nuclear infrastructure to be a military base or entirely serve peaceful purposes of the nation. Still Nasser as the president, Egypt also implemented a ballistic missile program that had the capacity to produce nuclear weapons delivery systems if in case the nation could have opted to go nuclear.
Egypt’s increasing interest in nuclear energy was motivated by US president Dwight Eisenhower’s talk on Atoms for Peace to the UN General Assembly in the last month of 1953. The UN Conference that was done in Geneva in 1955 inspired delegates from Egypt and many other nations inestimable insights into beginning their own nuclear programs. The conference offered the foundational framework for the execution of AEE’s programmes, and initiated a cycle of bargained nuclear cooperative agreements with foreign nations (Bahgat, 2017). Possibly, it was this desire of the foreign nations to offer help that cause Egypt’s programme to come up, to begin with.
Rahman left AEE in 1958 and two people replaced him: El Sayed Amin al Khasab, who was the Secretary-General of the AEE, and Salah Hedayat, who was the Director-General between 1960 and 1967. Egypt was involved in its highly active era of nuclear program development (Siracusa & Warren, 2018). Egypt received much political and financial support for the program in December 1960 after Israel’s Prime Minister David Gurion indicated that they were building a nuclear research reaction+n at Dimona. However, Gurion had painted a good picture concerning these nuclear programs in Dimona that they were constructed for being entirely peaceful reasons when it was the case. Egypt’s most aggressive efforts to purchase or produce nuclear weapons happened at the time the Dimona reactor was closed.
Surprisingly, Egypt has not had a case where there is a political decision to contribute to an internal program that is intended to build nuclear weapons. In spite of these proliferation foci of Egypt, the leadership never provides the financial resources as well as the political support that is needed for the program to succeed. This suggests that perhaps the actual expansion of nuclear weapons potential was the nation’s top concern. There was growing evidence at this time that Israel was developing its interest in nuclear weapons (Bahgat, 2017). Ultimately, consistent changes existed to the country’s leadership as well as economic situations in its response to counter the Israeli threat. The Sadat government insisted that the country must go ahead and enable the manifestation of Egyptian nuclear power program. Egypt’s most noteworthy advancement to its nuclear energy potential was the acquisition of 22 MW light water research reactors from INVAP in 1992 (Siracusa & Warren, 2018). From 2011, top former government representatives and political icons have provided public statements resisting the search of nuclear weapons. Presently Egypt's nuclear future is still unpredictable.
References
Bahgat, G. (2017). Egyptian Regional Policy. Reassessing Order and Disorder in the Middle East: Regional Imbalance or Disintegration? , 159.
Siracusa, J. M., & Warren, A. (2018). The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Regime: An Historical Perspective. Diplomacy & Statecraft , 29 (1), 3-28.
