Official: Obama Made Secret Pledges to Israel Over NPT

US 'Support' for Nuke-Free Mideast Comes With Strings

Already expressing its “regrets” for the call for a nuclear weapons-free Middle East as soon as they had signed it, more reports are emerging indicating that the Obama Administration’s official “support” for the idea is incredibly narrow and comes with strings attached.

According to one unnamed Israeli official, President Obama made secret pledges to Israel before agreeing to the deal, promising to preserve and even strength Israel’s “strategic” arsenal.

Israel has condemned the call for a nuclear free Mideast as “hypocritical” and noted that it does not feel bound by the NPT conference declaration. Israel is the only non-signatory to the NPT in the Middle East and also the only nuclear weapons state in the region.

Arab nations had expressed hope that the Obama Administration’s support for the proposal was a sign that Israel’s days of having a large, undeclared arsenal free of international oversight were coming to an end. It seems, however, that the signing will be milked for all it can provide President Obama politically, then discarded in favor of the same old policy.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.