Iran, Israel and Arabs trade barbs at EU nuclear meeting

As advertised, senior Iranian, Israeli and Arab representatives gathered in Brussels on Wednesday and Thursday last week to discuss the prospect of a WMD-free zone in the Middle East.

The Iranian delegation was led by Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, while the Israeli contingent was led by Jeremy Issacharoff, an ambassador and a deputy director-general for strategic affairs at the foreign ministry. Virtually the entire Arab world was represented at a similar level at the EU-brokered meeting, with the only significant exceptions of Libya and Yemen, who have pressing problems back home.

The good news is that the everyone managed to stay in the same (rather large) room for the duration of the off-the-record discussion. The bad news, according to participants, is that the large number of speakers meant that few speakers had time to go beyond the obligatory finger-wagging directed at their opposite numbers. One delegate said:

There wasn't much of substance. Usually there is time to get the venting out of the way and move on to more interesting issues, but this was so large that there was really just time for set pieces...All the same it was a good effort by the EU. If it had been done earlier it might have been more helpful.

The other big disappointment was that Gary Samore, President Obama's advisor on nuclear disarmament and proliferation, did not show up to make his scheduled keynote speech. He pleaded commitments back in Washington, but it was hardly the show of support from Washington that the idea of a WMD-free zone needs if it is to survive.

There are now serious doubts whether a formal conference on the issue can be arranged, as agreed at last year's NPT Review Conference in New York, in time for next year. The US argues that the host government should also provide an international 'facilitator' for the conference, but that cuts down the choice of facilitator.

The short-list for host countries is Finland, the Netherlands and Canada at the moment, but I have so far seen no names of would-be facilitators. There seems to be some disagreement over whether the position should be filled by a well-known statesman figure, who can get access to heads of government, or an effective behind-the-scenes diplomat, who would have time to plug away at the issue non-stop. A decision is due to be taken by September. If it is not, the 2012 conference will be in real danger of not happening.

Source: guardian.co.uk