Moreover, efforts to deny states the ability to acquire nuclear capabilities should go hand-in-hand with efforts to improve interstate relations. Given the current situation in the region, reaching out as a first step to the so-called “like minded states” – namely, Saudi Arabia and additional Gulf states, Egypt, Jordan and Israel – with the objective of creating a regional security forum with a comprehensive agenda should be promoted by the United States. Creating such a forum for the Middle East, which would constitute an important regional confidence-building measure, could also help set the stage for subsequent negotiations in due course on the idea of a WMD-Free Zone – a long-standing item on the global nonproliferation and disarmament agenda.

In conclusion, negotiations with Iran have demonstrated the centrality of U.S. involvement in regional nonproliferation efforts and hence the responsibility of the United States to take the lead in continuing to fight against proliferation in the Middle East. This goal can be advanced by setting a clear arms control agenda that not only reflects the lessons learned from the Iran nuclear negotiations, but also recognizes the impact of changing global and regional trends, and the need to conduct new conversations with both Russia and China. The direction of America’s ongoing relations and interactions with these two strong powers, as well as with the prospective proliferators themselves, will determine the strategic landscape within which nuclear proliferation will either be enabled or effectively constrained.

Emily Landau is a senior research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) and head of its Arms Control and Regional Security Program. Shimon Stein is a senior research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS). He served as Israel's ambassador to Germany (2001–07).

Image: Vladimir Putin with Hassan Rouhani. Kremlin.ru