U.S. official in Israel to discuss Mideast nuclear arms ban

[bemildred]

A senior U.S. official is in Israel to discuss the possibility of a compromise that would keep alive the idea of someday banning nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East, U.S. officials and U.N. diplomats said on Thursday.

Friday is the final day of a month-long review conference on the 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) at United Nations headquarters in New York. The conference has bogged down on several issues, above all the failure to convene a planned 2012 conference on a Middle East weapons of mass destruction (WMD) ban.

Without agreement on the Middle East issue, diplomats said treaty signatories might fail to agree approve final outcome document at the conference.

Last month, Egypt, backed by other Arab and non-aligned states, proposed that U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon convene a regional conference on banning WMD as called for at the 2010 NPT review meeting, with or without Israel's participation. Washington and Israel oppose the idea.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/22/us-mideast-nuclear-usa-israel-idUSKBN0O700H20150522

[Jefferson23]

1. I can't wait to see what this compromise might look like. lol

[bemildred]

2. Don't hold your breath.

I think the main real purpose will be for everybody to annoy and call names at each other.

[Jefferson23]

3. Yes, most likely...the US and Israel with a compromise? I don't think so.

It would read something like, when the moon is in the seventh house, the world
as we know it is under our thumb, securely of course, then and only then.....

Joking aside, one of the terrible fall outs from giving up nukes was the mess in Ukraine,
terrible result for them..there needs to be trust to continue and it's hard to imagine we
will ever realize that goal among the top dogs.