The Egyptian foreign minister says Israel must join the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in order to bring about a nuclear-weapons-free Middle East.

Nabil Fahmy made the remarks during the General Debate of the United Nations General Assembly on Saturday at the UN headquarters in New York.

He said that "a new Middle East will not come about without ensuring the right of equal security", adding that the Middle East should be free from threats posed by weapons of mass destruction (WMDs).

Fahmy said Israel must join the NPT, ratify the Chemical Weapons Convention and sign the Biological Weapons Convention.

Israel, which is widely believed to be the sole possessor of a nuclear arsenal in the Middle East with more than 200 undeclared nuclear warheads, pursues the policy of "deliberate ambiguity" on its nuclear program.

Tel Aviv, which has started several wars in the region in its 65-year history of occupation, has rejected global calls to join the NPT and does not allow International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors to observe its controversial nuclear program.

On September 20, the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) expressed grave concern over Israel's nuclear arsenal, saying it presents the greatest threat to the peace and security in the Middle East.

Two days before NAM issued the statement about Israel, Jim W. Dean, the managing director of Veterans Today, said in a Press TV interview that the Middle East will not see peace and stability as long as the regime in Tel Aviv refuses to put its nuclear weapons under international control.

Elsewhere in his remarks at the UN, the Egyptian foreign minister said, “The Palestinian question remains the main source of tension in our region."

“Egypt will continue to support the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, and the establishment of an independent and sovereign state, with East Jerusalem (al-Quds) as its capital, on all the territories of the (occupied) West Bank and Gaza, and in accordance with the Arab peace initiative and relevant peace terms," he noted.