of more than two decades since the end of the Cold War, the question still remains about the boundaries of the new Middle East. After the events of 9/11 and following the military intervention of the US and its allies in Afghanistan, and the later extension of their military campaign to Pakistan, there were some suggestions that Pakistan and Afghanistan have to be considered as part of the new Middle East. That proposal is just one of many indications that perhaps a new criterion regarding the boundaries of the new Middle East at least in the nuclear domain is needed. Second, extension of the agenda; the idea of a nuclear free zone in the Middle East was first proposed by Iran and co-sponsored by Egypt in 1974. Ever since, a variant of thinking for the establishment of a NFZ in the Middle East has been introduced. Most importantly is the 1995 NPT Review Conference that extended the domain of the NWZ to all weapons of mass destruction (WMD), namely biological and chemical weapons. The proposal was made by the Arab countries in which Egypt had the leading role. By extending the mandate of the Conference and to include Chemical, Biological and the WMD delivery systems in the agenda, in reality and in practical terms, the process became more complicated with the tradeoffs involved. With that decision, the prospect of NWZ became even more elusive than before. The motives of Mubarak's Egypt and other Arab countries that supported this proposal was