Obama abandoning another commitment to Israel
President Obama is on the verge of abandoning yet another commitment that the United States made to Israel. The Obama administration committed to Israel that it would not foist a nuclear-free zone on the region until all parties agree to it and significant progress has been made on Mideast peace. Now, the Obami are in negotiations with the Egyptians to do just that at the nuclear non-proliferation conference that begins on Monday. The U.S. is negotiating with Egypt a proposal to make the Middle East a region free of nuclear weapons, as the U.S. seeks to prevent Iran from derailing a monthlong U.N. conference on nuclear nonproliferation that begins Monday.What could go wrong?
U.S. officials familiar with the move call it an important step in assuring countries that Washington—criticized by some for its silence about Israel's undeclared nuclear arsenal—will equitably address weapons proliferation across the region, as Iran seeks to shift focus away from its own nuclear program.
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Senior Obama administration officials said Friday the White House is willing to significantly advance a Mideast nuclear weapons-free zone, and would support a conference on the subject at a future date. U.S. officials said talks with Egypt would resume in New York in the coming month. Such a zone is envisaged to include Israel, the Arab states, Iran and Turkey.
"We've made a proposal to them [Egypt] that goes beyond what the U.S. has been willing to do before," said the senior U.S. official involved in the nuclear diplomacy.
U.S. officials stressed, however, that they didn't believe that would happen without first achieving major advances in Arab-Israeli peace talks.
"We are concerned that the conditions are not right unless all members of the region participate, which would be unlikely unless there is a comprehensive peace plan which is accepted," said Ellen Tauscher, undersecretary of state for arms control and international security. She said the U.S. has also discussed the zone with the Arab League and other members of the Nonaligned Movement.
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Arms-control analysts familiar with the talks say the U.S. is likely to propose creating a U.N. envoy given the task of calling a conference of Middle East nations to press forward on the nuclear weapon-free zone.
"They are desperate to buy off Egyptian objections," said Henry Sokolski, executive director of the Non-Proliferation Education Center and a critic of the Obama administration's arms-control approach.
Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, an advocacy group, said the U.S. acceptance of a special envoy is a significant shift. A U.S. official refused to say whether the envoy proposal, first floated by Russia, was part of the U.S. offer.
The last NPT conference in 2005 ended in collapse. But U.S. officials said they have been laying the groundwork for this conference for nearly a year.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:50 PM
7 Comments:
There's zero chance Israel will agree to give up its nuclear arsenal to make Egypt and Turkey look good. What's more likely is that, if Israel is forced to give up its policy of "nuclear ambuiguity," Israel will likely decide to officially join the nuclear club. Whatever such a conference might decide, one thing it won't lead to is a pledge of unilateral Israeli nuclear disarmament. Just the opposite.
Heh
BS"D And this is a surprise to....????
Pity the Middle East can't be an Iran-free region!
What a disgusting hypocrite is hussain O. He is doing everything in his power to crush Israel by desperately sucking up to dictators, who in their turn are just using him.
While I am convinced that Obami is anti-Israel, and possibly anti-semitic, I can't believe that he and his administration don't recognize the stabilizing force that nuclear ambiguity has had on the region. Apart from non-state actors, there hasn't been a large conflaguration since 1973, as the instigators of hostilities are afraid of the consequences.
That is called a deterrent. If this president doesn't grasp this, we need a new president before the election time. Which means its time for impeachment, and removal from office.
I used to worry that Biden would be worse. Now I am of the mind that there couldn't possibly be worse, and Biden would be an improvement.
Hi Carl.
Just like i said it's not about Iran for Obama it's about Israel.
"Al-taqiyya and dissimulation are words used for a practice of Muslims blatantly lying to non-Muslims. All but some of the most fundamental Muslims consider the act of Al-taqiyya or lying to non-Muslims to be a good work."
See how deep Obama's rabbit hole goes with the Historyscoper's Obamascope.
http://historyscoper.angelfire.com/obamascope.html
BS"D :It's strange and frightful to experience how many Orthodox visitors spill racism and hate in their comments.
Let me be honest: the tone is mainly pretty similar to that used earlier in Stuermer or Ku-Klux-Klan leaflets when they meant Jewish personalities.
Especially T.L. Winston could have worked for Goebbels 75 years ago ...
I'm ashamed and angry at the comments and my brothers and sisters on visit here.
Now to the subject: Neither Obama nor his administration ever officially or privately commited to Israel to leave the Israeli nuclear arsenal issue out of the peace process.
The Israeli "ambiguity" policy is a joke, especially since Olmert admitted in public that Erez Israel is a member of the nuclear power club.
But let us forget this aspect. What remains is: the childish ambiguity "strategy" has zero/nil detterent potential or power.
The present international game is:
Either has Israel no WMD, therefore should join NPT and allow IAEA controls just to exercise strong direct pressure on Iran through all 5 permanent members of the Sec Council;
Or Israel has the nuclear arsenal already kids in the kindergartens know about and has no legal or moral right to "forbid" Iran or any other country in the region (e.g. Egypt , which has since many years a hidden nuclear program that Isarael knows about ...) the development of nuclear "devices".
Only the other NPT signatories are entitled to sanctions against countries in NPT that infringe the rules. Therefore it makes also in this scenario sense to Israel to join the NPT club. It risks nothing but gains a lot ...
I know, Netanyahu, Lieberman and Co. will continue to transform Israel into a country that rather continuously isolates itself more and more, and rather risks to loose its stounchest ally, US, and the strongest foreign paymasters beside the same US, the Jewish Diaspora.
A new European Jewish initiative called JCall demonstrated that it could get in a matter of less than 10 days - without any organized PR - 5,000 EuroJews to sign a petition asking the European Parliement to vigourously act against Israeli settlements in the territories and in Jerusalem as well as to increase the pressure on Israel in order to have it move toward a viable two-states solution.
What was worst for Israel: JCALL had over two hours to officially present this JEWISH petition and its harsh criticism of the Netanyahu government to the FULL European Parliament Assembly, which applauded JCall's European and Israeli representatives on the Parliament's central stage every few minutes.
And all of it was broadcast live, in direct over the World Wide Web.
Haverim, we shouldn't play with the fire or we'll get burned.
Hallelujah
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