Australia brings Israel, Iran together

[Cees Binkhorst]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

De afspraak was om dit overleg geheim te houden.
Jammer dat dit niet is gelukt!

Groet / Cees

Australia brings Israel, Iran together

Daniel Flitton
October 16, 2009 - 12:00AM

Australia has helped accomplish the seemingly impossible - bringing Israel
and Iran into the same room for high-level talks on nuclear weapons.

The meeting took place with little public fanfare in the Egyptian capital,
Cairo, last month as part of the International Commission on Nuclear
Non-proliferation and Disarmament, an expert panel assembled by Prime
Minister Kevin Rudd to help rid the world of nuclear arms.

Coming only days after Tehran revealed it had secretly constructed a
uranium enrichment plant, participants said there was a ''very robust
exchange'' between the Israeli and Iranian officials.

Iran's suspected nuclear weapons ambitions have drawn widespread
condemnation, while Israel is the only regional country to possess atomic
weapons - a program Tel Aviv has never officially acknowledged.

While careful not to claim any breakthrough at the talks, sources have
told The Age both sides engaged in ''serious discussions'' and canvassed
the idea of a nuclear-weapons-free zone in the Middle East.

Contact between Israeli and Iranian officials is sporadic and only takes
place at international forums - no formal meetings between the two
countries have occurred since the 1979 Iranian revolution.

Officials from Egypt, Jordan, Turkey and other regional countries also
took part in the three-day meeting and it is believed the talks floated an
idea for a further regional conference - possibly hosted by United Nations
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon - to outline the broad aims of a treaty to
create a Middle East nuclear-free zone.

Similar ideas have stalled in the past over the long-running
Israeli-Palestinian conflict and questions of security guarantees for
Israel. But last month's talks in Egypt attempted to skirt such obstacles
by focusing on proposals to safeguard any fissile material in the region
that could potentially be used for nuclear weapons.

Iran's senior envoy to the meeting was its ambassador to the International
Atomic Energy Agency, Ali Asghar Soltanieh.

Israel sent the director of the Israel Atomic Energy Commission, Merav
Zafary-Odiz. Israel's former foreign affairs minister, Shlomo Ben-Ami, was
also at the meeting in a non-official role.

The high-level representatives are believed to have impressed regional
diplomats who observed the proceedings.

A further meeting of the commission - jointly chaired by Australia and
Japan - begins in Hiroshima at the weekend in advance of a final report
expected at the end of the year.

A Lowy Institute poll this week appeared to deliver strong backing for the
Government's nuclear disarmament efforts, with 69 per cent of Australians
rating their most serious international fear as the threat that unfriendly
countries might obtain nuclear weapons.

This story was found at:
http://www.theage.com.au/world/australia-brings-israel-iran-together-20091015-gz4g.html

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