Israel to observe at conference on nuclear usage

reuters

JERUSALEM — Israel will take part as an observer in a major nuclear nonproliferation conference that opens at the United Nations today, ending a 20-year absence in hope of fostering dialogue with Arab states, an Israeli official said.

Assumed to have the Middle East’s sole nuclear arsenal and having never joined the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Israel has stayed away from gatherings of NPT signatories since 1995 in protest at resolutions it regarded as biased against it.

In a position laid out by then-Foreign Minister Shimon Peres in 1995, Israel has said it would consider submitting to international nuclear inspections and controls under the NPT only once at peace with the Arabs and Iran. Those countries want Israel curbed first.

With Middle East upheaval and the disputed Iranian nuclear program often pitting Tehran-aligned Shiite Muslims against Sunni Arabs, an Israeli official saw in the NPT review conference, which ends May 22, a chance to stake out common causes.

Israel deems Iran its top threat. The Islamic Republic has said it seeks only nuclear energy, not bombs, from uranium enrichment. Six global powers are negotiating a comprehensive nuclear deal with Iran — a process Israel has denounced, fearing it will not restrain Tehran’s atomic activities sufficiently.

“We think that this is the time for all moderate countries to sit and discuss the problems that everyone is facing in the region,” the Israeli official, who requested anonymity given the sensitivity of the subject, said Sunday.

“I see this, coming as an observer to the conference now, as trying to demonstrate our good faith in terms of having such a conversation. We need direct negotiations between the regional parties, a regional security conversation, a conversation based on consensus. This (attendance at the NPT conference) is meant not to change our policy. It’s meant to emphasize our policy.”

The question of sequencing — if peace should precede disarmament — has helped mire negotiations on the creation of a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction.

An Egyptian plan for an international meeting laying the groundwork for such a deal was agreed at the previous NPT review conference, in 2010.