Middle East Focus: Iran Wants Israel to Join NPT, Sing Kumbaya, a Partially Virgin Region………….

Arabia Deserta

Iran Wants Israel to Join NPT, Sing Kumbaya, a Partially Virgin Region………….

“"Establishing a world free of nuclear weapons is one of the Islamic Republic of Iran's priorities," Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) said at the IAEA General Conference in Vienna on Monday. "Achieving this objective entails pursuing the three pillars of the NPT, disarmament, non-proliferation and the realization of the undeniable right to use peaceful nuclear energy," IRNA quoted Salehi as saying. Salehi said forty years after the NPT was ratified, the International community still suffers from "imbalance between disarmament and non-proliferation." Iran has always "stressed the establishment of a region free of weapons of mass destruction" in line with the resolution issued in the 1995 NPT Review and Extension Conference, Salehi added. The resolution on the Middle East called on all regional states to join the treaty and put all nuclear facilities under IAEA safeguards, and also work toward a region free of weapons of mass destruction. "It should be noted that the 2010 NPT Review Conference reiterated the necessity of Israel joining the Treaty and placing its nuclear facilities under comprehensive IAEA safeguards."………”

It is a distraction, of course. Just as the Israeli fixation of the Iranian nuclear program is a distraction. Yet it is a compelling argument: can you have a nuclear-free Middle East if one of its countries is loaded with warheads and outside the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty? We can have a partially nuclear free region, but that is like someone being a half virgin, no?
Wouldn't it be interesting, though, if they can have a huge nuclear bonfire (what should we call that?) and dance around it singing Kumbaya?
Cheers
mhg

m.h.ghuloum@gmail.com