ISRAELI POSITION
Few in the international community, publicly at least, doubt the need for a nuclear-free Middle East.
"The alternative, with a nuclear-armed Israel and Iran apparently determined to acquire the capability, is certainly not a good thing," as Shire put it.
"In the Middle East, they have not protected Israel from suicide bombings and other forms of terrorism, and they provide other countries in the region with a scapegoat for their own policies that do not advance disarmament and nonproliferation. A nuclear free Middle East would remove an important irritant and allow the countries in the region to address more fundamental security concerns," she said.
Yet, it is widely assumed by analysts that the latest declaration by the permanent members of the Security Council will have little or no effect on the Israelis, despite Israel's repeated comments that it favors a nuclear-free region.
"I don't think (the United States) will put real pressure on Israel to sign the NPT, which in turn would mean disarming. It's an extreme measure, which the Americans would push to bring to fruition," Yair Evron of The Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University told Israel Radio on Thursday.
While agreeing that Israel cannot be forced to do anything, Shire did see a clear message in the United States joining the others in attaching their name to Wednesday's declaration.
"The simple act of the United States declaring its nuclear arsenal and issuing this statement within the span of 48 hours is a way of showing the world, including Israel, that the United States is committed to nuclear transparency and eventual disarmament," she said.
While all the signs from Israel are that it will largely ignore this latest pressure from the UN Security Council and Egypt, Malin believed that looking seriously at arms reduction could be a litmus test for broader peace in the region.
"Consultations on steps toward a Middle East WMD (weapons of mass destruction)-free zone, as part of a larger effort to advance regional peace and security, would be a good way to test the respective commitments of all the states of the region to regional peace and security," he said.
Related:
Five nuclear powers vow to fulfill NPT obligations
UNITED NATIONS, May 5 (Xinhua) -- The world's five nuclear powers on Wednesday said that they attach great importance to achieving the universality of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), remain committed to fulfill the obligations under the multilateral treaty and to take concrete and credible steps towards irreversible disarmament.
Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, the five recognized nuclear countries under the NPT, issued a joint statement to air their viewpoints on nuclear weapons on the sidelines of the current NPT Review Conference, which entered the third day here Wednesday. Full story
