The meeting will address the rising instability in the Middle East and the nuclear risks in the region, Iranian nuclear proliferation, how nuclear-complicit-states enable the status quo, the work for a nuclear weapon free zone in the Middle East, and how to strengthen the norm against nuclear weapons.  

The seminar will start with two lectures from:  

Pelle Valentin Olsen, Associate Professor of Middle East studies at the University of Bergen. He will give an introduction on the rising instability in the Middle East, focusing on the background for the ongoing war in Gaza.  

Hebatalla Taha, Associate Senior Lecturer at Lund University's Centre for Advanced Middle Eastern Studies and the Department of Political Science. She will talk about how nuclear weapons pose heightened security concern amid the rising instability in the Middle East, including the nuclear rhetoric in Israel and the potential for Iran becoming a nuclear weapon state.  

After the two lectures, there will be a panel discussion where Knut Mork Skagen, president of the board of IPPNW Norway, will participate together with Hebatalla Taha and Pelle Valentin Olsen.  Saima Naz Akhtar, former president of the board of IPPNW, will lead the discussion.

The event will be in English.

Free entry.

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