 |
Al-Ahram Weekly 27 April - 3 May 2000 Issue No. 479 
|
||
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
| ||
|
Al-Ahram Weekly 27 April - 3 May 2000 Issue No. 479
|
||
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
| ||
Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Special Features Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Israel won't play fair
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan opened the five-yearly review of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) on Monday in New York with a call for the full implementation of the comprehensive test ban treaty (CTBT). Annan told delegates from 188 countries that unless they adopted "specific benchmarks" for progress, "the new millennium will have started on an ominous note."
The review is the sixth since the NPT went into effect and the first since it was indefinitely extended in 1995. Annan urged nuclear weapons states to make "deep, irreversible reductions" in nuclear weapons stocks and appealed for greater transparency in nuclear arsenals and materials and the creation of new nuclear-weapon-free zones (NWFZ).
As the only country in the Middle East that has not joined the three-decade-old NPT, Israel is not keen on the creation of an NWFZ in the Middle East. Israel has consistently refused to open its nuclear facilities for international inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency and further insisted on Tuesday that it would stick by its long-standing policy of "ambiguity" with respect to its nuclear capabilities.
"Israel [has kept] for decades, the same policy which we call the ambiguity policy and we have no intention of changing it," Israeli Deputy Defence Minister Ephraim Sneh said in Jerusalem on Tuesday.
But Egypt and a number of Arab and Third World countries, have been trying to lobby enough consensus to get the review conference to clearly and specifically ask Israel to abandon its policy of nuclear ambiguity.
"The Middle East cannot continue to tolerate the presence of one nuclear state -- that is, Israel," Foreign Minister Amr Moussa warned earlier this week, adding that Egypt is committed to freeing the Middle East of nuclear weapons. "President Hosni Mubarak has launched an initiative to this effect and we are determined to pursue it. The security of the Middle East is no joke," Moussa said on Sunday.
Egypt agreed to join the indefinite extension of NPT in 1995 after the US approved a Middle East-specific resolution aimed at clearing the region of nuclear weapons. This resolution, however, did not mention Israel's nuclear status.
"This resolution on the Middle East is the only resolution that specifically addresses a certain region. This reflects the awareness of all the NPT members of the threat that results from having unchecked nuclear facilities in the Middle East," commented Ahmed Abul-Gheit, Egypt's ambassador to the UN. Abul-Gheit, who is chairing Egypt's delegation to the NPT review conference, stressed the importance of the conference as regards Israel's nuclear capabilities.
"This conference has to look into the implications of the Israeli stance in this respect, and the threat it poses to the security of the Middle East," Abul-Gheit said. "The conference also needs to adopt the necessary recommendations to urge Israel to quickly join the NPT," he added.
For its part, Israel is accusing Egypt of trying to whip up condemnation of Israel's nuclear policy. "Egypt has been acting in a way that is very much out of order," Sneh told Israel's Army Radio. The deputy defence minister described Egypt's position as "antagonistic and unfriendly," and accused Egypt of "trying to break our policy."
"We hope that the US, according to tradition and according to the friendly relations we share, will act," Sneh said.
Washington had sent a senior disarmament diplomat to Cairo earlier this month to discuss this particular issue with top Egyptian officials. Diplomatic sources told Al-Ahram Weekly that the US has shown "understanding of the Egyptian point of view, which requests prompt action to move toward making the Middle East a nuclear-free zone." The source added, "If the US is keen enough on encouraging the spirit of peace in the Middle East, then it needs to address the serious security concerns of Arab countries."
But in New York, the US has been trying to lobby Third World countries to withdraw support for an Arab request to include a clear reference to Israel in the reviewed version of the Middle East resolution that was adopted in 1995.
"This is totally difficult to appreciate or accept," commented one Egyptian diplomat. "Israel should not be allowed such a privileged status," he contended, particularly if the review conference decides to name the other three non-signatories of NPT -- India, Pakistan and Cuba.
"What we agreed to in 1995 was a comprehensive package deal that was based on a resolution sponsored by the US, the UK, and Russia ... Today, Egypt is determined to seek implementation of this resolution in cooperation with all parties," said Fayza Abul-Naga, Egypt's Permanent Representative to the Geneva-based Disarmament Conference.
Informed sources told the Weekly that the UN secretariat in charge of preparing the necessary documents for the review conference has, in a precedent, made a clear reference to "Israel as the only country in the Middle East" that is not a member of the non-proliferation regime. "This is a significant step ahead," commented a senior Egyptian diplomat.
Still, the US has warned non-nuclear states to avoid "radical changes of course" in disarmament talks. Speaking at the NPT review, US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said that the US and other nuclear states "share the frustration many feel about the pace of progress toward a world free of nuclear weapons but we also know that if countries demand unrealistic and premature measures, they will harm the NPT and set back everyone's cause."
Albright was replying to a call from the seven-country New Agenda Coalition (NAC), of which Egypt is a member, for an "unequivocal undertaking" from the five nuclear states to totally eliminate atomic weapons. The other members of the NAC are Brazil, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa and Sweden.
Speaking for the coalition, Mexican Foreign Minister Rosario Green said that the four-week NPT review conference "may be our last and best opportunity to move definitively toward the achievement of the goals of the treaty."
NAC called on nuclear-weapons states to "engage in an accelerated process of negotiations" and to "take steps leading to nuclear disarmament" before the next review conference in 2005.
Meanwhile, Washington's allies on Tuesday criticised US plans to build an anti-ballistic missile shield in space, while Russia warned that such a move would bring nuclear disarmament talks to a halt. But senior US officials argued that a shield would leave Russia's nuclear deterrent intact, and said the US needed protection from attack by "rogue states" such as North Korea.
Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy maintained that "the proposed unilateral national missile defence would have serious implications for the NPT regime."
In seeming agreement, Secretary-General Annan had told the opening session of the review conference on Monday that the NPT "stands today as a paradox." The signature of 187 states testifies to the NPT "global appeal", but Annan insisted that as yet, "no one can be satisfied with the degree of implementation so far."
Amr Abdel-Sami' in New York,
Gamil Ibrahim in Geneva,
Dina Ezzat in Cairo,
Wire dispatches
