Israel Matzav

Surprise: Arabs diss Obama on Israeli nuke program

President Obama thought he had a deal with the Arabs. He would drop any reference to Iran from the NPT conference and agree to talk about a nuclear free Middle East in 2012, and the Arabs would drop their demands that Israel open its alleged nuclear facilities for inspection. It was a lousy deal to start with - he should have just let the NPT conference fail - and it just got worse.

Ignoring a US warning, Arab nations urged Washington and other powers to end support of Israel's nuclear secrecy and to push Israel to allow international inspections of its program, diplomats told The Associated Press Sunday.

Islamic nations have long called for Israel to open its nuclear program. But the fact that the Arab League has directly approached Washington and other Israeli allies for support at the September meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency is significant, considering that US President Barack Obama last month warned against using that forum to single out Israel.

Obama then suggested that such a move would likely kill hopes of breakthrough talks on a Mideast nuclear-free zone, as proposed by the UN's 189-nation Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty conference three months ago.

Over Israeli objections, the planned 2012 talks were backed by the US and other nuclear powers for the first time since Arab nations pushed for such a gathering 15 years ago.

The Arab appeal to pressure Israel to open its nuclear program to inspectors also threatens to deflect attention from Iran, which Washington and its allies now consider a grave nuclear proliferation threat, even though Teheran insists it is not developing nuclear weapons.

The Arab appeal is contained in an Aug 8 letter signed by Arab League chief Amr Moussa that was shared with The Associated Press. It asks for backing of a resolution that Arab nations will submit to the September assembly of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

An attached draft of the resolution expresses "concern" about Israel's nuclear program and urges it to join the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and to open its atomic activities to outside inspection.

Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed in a statement last month to "work together to oppose efforts to single out Israel" at the 150-nation International Atomic Energy Agency conference.

What could go wrong?

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:54 AM