Lebanon
Lebanon voted in favour of adopting the TPNW at the UN Diplomatic Conference in 2017 and has consistently voted in favour of the annual UN General Assembly resolutions on the Treaty, including in 2023. Lebanon maintains policies and practices that are compatible with all of the prohibitions in Article 1 of the TPNW, and can therefore sign and ratify or accede to the Treaty without the need for a change in conduct.In December 2022, the Permanent Mission of Lebanon to the United Nations informed the Nuclear Weapons Ban Monitor that the matter of accession to the TPNW is being discussed among ministries concerned in the capital.[1]
TPNW Status
| TPNW Article 1(1) prohibitions: Compatibility in 2023 | ||
|---|---|---|
| (a) | Develop, produce, manufacture, acquire | Compatible |
| Test | Compatible | |
| Possess or stockpile | Compatible | |
| (b) | Transfer | Compatible |
| (c) | Receive transfer or control | Compatible |
| (d) | Use | Compatible |
| Threaten to use | Compatible | |
| (e) | Assist, encourage or induce | Compatible |
| (f) | Seek or receive assistance | Compatible |
| (g) | Allow stationing, installation, deployment | Compatible |
| TPNW voting and participation | |
|---|---|
| UNGA resolution on TPNW (latest vote) | Voted yes (2023) |
| Participated in 2MSP (2023) | No |
| 1MSP delegation size (% women) | N/A |
| Adoption of TPNW (7 July 2017) | Voted yes |
| Participated in TPNW negotiations (2017) | Yes |
| Negotiation mandate (A/RES/71/258) | Voted yes |
| Other weapons of mass destruction (WMD) treaties | |
|---|---|
| Party to an NWFZ | No |
| Party to the NPT | Yes (Ratified 1970) |
| Ratified the CTBT | Yes (Ratified 2008) |
| Party to the BWC | Yes (Ratified 1975) |
| Party to the CWC | Yes (Acceded 2008) |
| IAEA safeguards and fissile material | |
|---|---|
| Safeguards agreement | Yes (5 Mar 1973) |
| TPNW Art 3(2) deadline | N/A |
| Small Quantities Protocol | Yes (Modified) |
| Additional Protocol | No |
| Enrichment facilities/reprocessing plants | No |
| HEU stocks | No |
| Plutonium stocks | No |
Latest developments
In a statement marking the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons on 26 September 2023, Lebanon welcomed the adoption of the Vienna Action Plan in 2022 and expressed its hope that TPNW ‘would contribute to furthering the objective of the total elimination of nuclear weapons’.2
In the First Committee of the UN General Assembly in October 2023, Lebanon said that it was ‘gravely concerned by the increasing risk of use of nuclear weapons, and the humanitarian catastrophe any such use would bring about’. ‘We need to restart the conversation about disarmament,’ it implored. ‘If we drop our commitment to multilateralism for unilateralism, we risk sliding back on a terrible trail that has been tread before, and its end is well known.’3
Recommendations
-
Lebanon should urgently adhere to the TPNW.
-
Lebanon should conclude and bring into force an Additional Protocol with the IAEA.
1) Email to the Nuclear Weapons Ban Monitor from Mohammad-Ali Jardali, Counsellor, Permanent Mission of Lebanon to the UN, 19 December 2022.