BY ADMIN
Iran, Israel and
Arab states took part in a meeting two weeks ago about prospects for an
international conference on banning nuclear weapons in the Middle East,
diplomats said on Tuesday, a rare such gathering of regional adversaries.
They gave no
details about the October 21-22 meeting in the Swiss village of Glion near
Montreux. An Israeli official said various envoys set out their national
positions but Israel had
no direct communication with Iranian and Arab delegates.
An Arab diplomat
told Reuters: “That they were there, the Israelis and Iran,
is the main thing.” The discussions were also attended by representatives of
the United States and some Arab states, the diplomat added, without naming
them.
There were 13-14
delegations around the table and Finnish Foreign Ministry Under-Secretary of
State Jaakko Laajava, who is charged with organizing the Middle East
conference, was among the participants, another diplomat said.
The discussions
were “quite constructive,” the diplomat said, adding that another meeting was
likely later this month, although it was still unclear exactly who would
attend.
Israel is widely
believed to possess the Middle East’s only nuclear arsenal, drawing frequent
condemnation by Arab countries and Iran,
which say it threatens peace and security.
U.S. and Israeli
officials see Iran’s atomic activity as the main proliferation threat and say a
nuclear arms-free zone in the Middle East is not feasible without a broad
Arab-Israeli peace and verifiable limits on the Iranian nuclear program.
Iran says it is
enriching uranium only for civilian energy, not for potential nuclear weapons
fuel as the West suspects.
A plan for an
international conference to lay the groundwork for a Middle East free of
weapons of mass destruction was agreed in 2010, co-sponsored by Russia,
the United States and Britain.
But Washington said
the conference would be delayed just before it was due to be held in late 2012,
and no new date has been announced.
The June election
of Hassan Rouhani, a pragmatist who has pledged to try to resolve the
decade-old dispute over Tehran’s atomic activities, as new Iranian president
has raised hopes of a peaceful settlement with world powers.
Iran and the United
States, France,
Britain, Germany, China and Russia are
to hold a new round of negotiations in Geneva on Thursday and Friday.
Israel has warned
against what it calls an Iranian “charm offensive” and accuses Tehran of
diplomatic stalling while it builds up the capability to produce nuclear
weaponry.
The Israeli
official, speaking in Jerusalem on Monday, described the October 21-22 meeting
as a “preparatory session, of sorts”, ahead of the planned Middle East
conference.
“There were no
contacts between our representative and Arab or Iranian representatives, not
direct nor indirect. The meeting was mainly technical,” the Israeli official
said.
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