A Nuclear Free Zone in the Middle East : An Iranian Perspective Editor's note: Nasser Saghafi-Ameri is a former senior Iranian diplomat and research scholar in the fields of foreign policy, international security, and nuclear disarmament. A regional conference is scheduled to be held in 2012 on the establishment of a Middle East without weapons of mass destruction (WMD). At the official level, there are some positive argumentations in the West for achieving a Nuclear Free Zone (NFZ) in the Middle East at a time that the threat of war by Israel against Iran looms on the horizon. Thus, NFZ looks as a better alternative to a military option to everyone, except perhaps some Israeli officials and their supporters in the US. Cognizant of the fact that any initiation that would lead to a world free of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction is valuable and welcomed by everyone who is committed to the world peace, the success of the forthcoming conference very much depends on a realistic approach and understanding the real challenges ahead. In the analysis of future negotiations for the establishment of NFZ or WMD Free Zone, some points are of great significance. First, the scope of the plan; the geostrategic context of the proposal for NFZ in the Middle East since 1974 has dramatically changed. During that period, a bi-polar system dominated the international system. Consequently the boundaries of the Middle East were defined according to the rules of a global bi-polarity. After a period