US says no conference on nuke-free Mideast for now
Source: Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) The U.S. says a proposed conference on banning nuclear weapons in the Middle East cannot be convened at this point because of current conditions in the region.
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in a statement released Friday that the U.S. will continue to work to create conditions that could result in a successful conference. But she cited political turmoil in the region and Iran's defiant stance on nonproliferation.
She says the U.S. supports the goal of a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction. But she said such a conference should discuss a broad agenda of regional security and have some sort of consensus among the nations in the region on how to approach the conference.
The Associated Press reported earlier this month that the meeting, planned for Helsinki, Finland, before the end of the year had been called off. A diplomat, who demanded anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter ahead of a public announcement of the cancellation, said Israel had decided not to attend. Key sponsors had said that the meeting was possible only if all countries, especially Israel, would participate.
Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/us-says-no-conference-nuke-free-mideast-now
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(42,239 posts)(Reuters) - Britain and the United Nations said on Saturday they hoped a conference aimed at trying to ban nuclear weapons in the Middle East could take place soon after the United States said it would not happen next month as originally planned.
If and when it happens, the conference is likely to be fraught as Iran and Arab states say Israel's presumed nuclear arsenal is the main threat to security in the region, while Israel and the West see Tehran as the main proliferation danger.
Western diplomats and others believe the conference would make little headway because of that fundamental difference in opinion - something the United States has described as "a deep conceptual gap".
However, Britain and the conference's other organisers, which include Russia and the United Nations as well as prospective host Finland, believe it is worth a try anyway and anti-nuclear campaigners would also like to see it take place.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/11/24/uk-britain-weapons-conference-idUKBRE8AN05O20121124