Despite US Warnings, Arab Countries Will Press Israel to Sign NPT

US Steps Up Criticism of Syria Ahead of IAEA Conference

Despite repeated US demands for the Arab nations to drop any mention of Israel’s nuclear arsenal at next week’s IAEA conference, the “Arab Group” still intends to submit a draft resolution calling for the Israeli government to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

But supporters of the resolution say that the goal for a conference on creating a nuclear-free Middle East in 2012 would be all but impossible if Israel, the region’s only nuclear weapons power and the region’s only non-signatory to the NPT, is exempted from any oversight.

Administration officials have warned that the resolution could harm the peace talks related to Israel’s occupation of the West Bank. Those talks are widely expected to fall apart on Sept. 26 when Israel renews settlement expansions, but it will still be going on during the IAEA meeting.

The US has also claimed that the effort is a ploy on behalf of Iran and Syria to divert attention from investigations into them, and has stepped up calls for further IAEA investigation into a Syrian site that the Israeli military bombed in 2007. Syria allowed an IAEA team to the site after Israel claimed it was a secret nuclear research plant, but the team’s ability to investigate was seriously hindered by the fact that Israel had already destroyed all the evidence by bombing the region.

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.