Lebanon
Lebanon voted in favour of adopting the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (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 2025. It 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.
TPNW Status
| Key weapons of mass destruction treaties | ||
|---|---|---|
| NUCLEAR WEAPONS | ||
| Party to the TPNW | No | |
| Party to the NPT | Yes (Ratified 1970) | |
| Ratified the CTBT | Yes (Ratified 2008) | |
| Party to an NWFZ | No | |
| CSA with the IAEA | Yes (In force 1973) | |
| AP with the IAEA | No | |
| BIOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL WEAPONS | ||
| Party to the BWC | Yes (Ratified 1975) | |
| Party to the CWC | Yes (Acceded 2008) | |
| TPNW Art. 1(1) prohibitions: Compatibility in 2025 | ||
|---|---|---|
| (a) | Develop, produce, manufacture, acquire | Compatible |
| Possess or stockpile | Compatible | |
| Test | 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 (2025) |
| Participated in 3MSP (2025) | No |
| Participated in 2MSP (2023) | No |
| Participated in 1MSP (2022) | No |
| Average MSP 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 |
| Fissile material | |
|---|---|
| Nuclear facilities | No |
| Fissile material production | No |
| HEU stocks | No |
| Plutonium stocks | No |
| SQP with the IAEA | Yes (Revised) |
Latest developments
At the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) Preparatory Committee meeting in April 2025, Lebanon expressed concern at ‘the deteriorating geopolitical environment and the accelerating development of nuclear weapons, which constitutes one of the most serious challenges facing the international community since the end of the Cold War’. It called on States ‘to return to the path of working towards the total elimination of nuclear weapons’.1
It welcomed the entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) in 2021. ‘The [TPNW] already constitutes a major contribution to the shared goal of eliminating the threat of nuclear weapons and nuclear war,’ it said. ‘The upcoming Review Conference [in 2026] provides an important opportunity to focus efforts on slowing and reversing the accelerating arms race and preventing proliferation, and on upholding the prohibitions on the use of nuclear weapons and the threat of their use.’
In the First Committee of the UN General Assembly in October 2025, Lebanon warned that the ‘disarmament and arms control systems face unprecedented challenges’ and expressed strong opposition to the continued diversion of resources ‘towards developing and enhancing stockpiles of destructive weapons and related technologies’.2
It positively noted the growing number of States that have signed the TPNW, ‘considering it an important instrument that closes a legal gap regarding the explicit prohibition of the development, testing, possession, and use of nuclear weapons’.
In 2022, the Permanent Mission of Lebanon to the United Nations in New York informed the Nuclear Weapons Ban Monitor that ‘the matter of accession [to the TPNW] is being discussed among ministries concerned in the capital’.3
Recommendations
-
Lebanon should urgently adhere to the TPNW.
-
Lebanon should conclude and bring into force an Additional Protocol (AP) with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
3) Email to the Nuclear Weapons Ban Monitor from Mohammad-Ali Jardali, Counsellor, Permanent Mission of Lebanon to the UN, 19 December 2022.