US lifting the veil on Israel’s nuclear status

The Wall Street Journal reports:

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.

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.

But here’s the catch: before Washington applies any pressure on Israel, there must be significant progress in the peace process.

Still, there is one element here that should have been worthy of a headline of its own but doesn’t even get a mention in the article: the Obama administration seems to effectively be ending US complicity in Israel’s policy of nuclear ambiguity.

Another important part of this story that the WSJ article glides over without clarification is the reason the US is negotiating specifically with Egypt.

Washington is pushing for revisions to the Non-Proliferation Treaty to close some of its loopholes but for these to pass in the 189-nation conference, the US needs the support of the 118-non-aligned states led by Egypt. That support will not be forthcoming without some kind of agreement on a nuclear-free Middle East.

print this post

Related Posts...

{ 5 comments }

Geof Gray May 2, 2010 at 7:00 pm: Paul,
So we are to believe that the Us will convince Israel to part with it’s 200 plus nukes for Middle East comity? AIPAC would stand for that? This seems way beyond far fetched.
Paul Woodward May 2, 2010 at 8:29 pm: No. I think the bargain is supposed to go the other way around: Middle East peace first, no Iranian nuclear threat, and then Israel gives up its arsenal. In other words, the Obama administration is going to pledge to push for a nuclear-free region as a peace dividend, i.e. say to Israel, we want you to give up your nukes once you feel absolutely safe and not before then. That will probably happen around the time the messiah appears.
Dejavous May 3, 2010 at 3:39 pm: There will be no peace in the Middle East and furthermore Psalms 83 is getting ready to happen very soon. Any non-illiterate Christian knows this and is preparing for it. Scripture plainely tells us this in no uncertain terms and so far scripture has been right 100% of the time in over 500 prophesies layed out in the texts. I believe that nukes will play a big part in Psalms 83 in the total destruction of Damascus in Isaiah 17 and Israel will be the deliverer of said nukes early on in the war. As a result of this battle – Ezekiel 38-39 will come into play as revenge on Israel for Psalms 83.
Paul Lookman May 3, 2010 at 4:00 pm: “Another important part of this story that the WSJ article glides over without clarification is the reason the US is negotiating specifically with Egypt”.

Egypts is a very, very loyal ally of the USA. So, the only explanation is that this is a nice narrative, whereby the USA uses an Arab country to massage public opinion and influence the major powers to put pressure on Iran. Surely Iran will not buy this hoax, and neither will Russia and China. The only reasonable way out is: all nukes removed from the Middle East.

Paul Lookman
Paul Lookman May 3, 2010 at 4:06 pm: And the least the USA should do is put pressure on Israel to sign the nuclear NPT and accept inspection by the IAEA, as all civilized nuclear powers do.