Israel Matzav

Good news: US and Russia draft proposal for nuclear free Middle East

Under pressure from Egypt and Iran, President Obama is doing what he does best: He's bowing to them. London's Guardian reports that the United States and Russia have drafted a proposal for a 'nuclear free Middle East' and have circulated it to the other three veto-wielding members of the United Nations Security Council for approval. The proposal will also hijack the agenda at this month's conference on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty so that Iran will not be that conference's primary subject. And it will likely be approved a heck of a lot faster than any of the proposals that have been circulating for sanctions designed (belatedly) to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power in the first place. Oh - and get a load of this:

According to the Washington Post, the US will reveal the exact size of the American arsenal for the first time, in a show of transparency and to underline the cuts it has made. But to ensure vital support from Egypt, which is chairing the non-aligned movement nations, the US and Russia have also drafted the proposal for a nuclear-free Middle East zone.

For reasons I outlined in an earlier post, there won't be a nuclear free Middle East anytime soon - probably never. But by drafting this proposal and allowing it to become a focal point of the talks, the Obama administration has ensured that yet another international conference will be hijacked to become an Israel bashing session.

In return for backing a Middle East nuclear weapons-free zone, Washington will want support from Egypt and other non-weapons states to isolate Iran, impose greater penalties for leaving the NPT, and give the UN nuclear watchdog more teeth to curb proliferation.

Good luck with that.

By the way, am I the only one waiting for an explanation from this administration why it is so desperate for Arab support to isolate Iran? Forget for a minute that isolating Iran and preventing it from obtaining nuclear weapons is also an Arab interest (except for Syria and possibly Qatar), it seems that the countries from which the US really needs support to isolate Iran are Russia and China, not the Arab countries.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:00 PM