Dina Ezzat examines an era in which diplomacy and espionage serve Israel's nuclear agenda A new episode of Israel's espionage in Egypt was revealed this week -- the latest in a series of incidents, notwithstanding the 28-year-old "peace" between the two. This time, nuclear technology was the theme in question. On Tuesday, Egyptian authorities said they had smashed a spy ring working for Israel which included an Egyptian engineer with Cairo's Atomic Energy Commission, an Irishman and a Japanese national. Officials say, Mohamed Sayed Saber, 35, arrested in February, has been accused of and confessed to supplying information to the Israeli secret service Mossad on "the different activities" of Egypt's atomic energy body. Yesterday, presidential spokesman Suleiman Awad said the latest Israeli espionage episode "came as no surprise to the Egyptian national security authorities who were very much alerted to the matter". He vowed that Egypt will not remain silent to espionage attempts by any country, including Israel. In September last year, Egypt announced it was resuming its civilian nuclear programme after a 20-year freeze and said it planned to build at least one nuclear power plant by the year 2020. The release of the espionage account comes against a backdrop of a new diplomatic confrontation over the shocking imbalance of arms that exists between Israel and Arab states. Ahead of a Middle East tour by US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who was in Cairo yesterday, Washington reaffirmed its commitment to Israel's military supremacy. The upgrading of US-Israeli military cooperation is being matched by two-track diplomatic manoeuvres that seek to ensure that Israel remains exempt from scrutiny of its nuclear programme while at the same time Arab countries that have not joined the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) are being pressured into doing so. Preparations are already under way for the five yearly review conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). On 30 April in Vienna, the headquarters of the International Agency for Atomic Energy (IAEA), a meeting is scheduled to kick-start a three-year preparatory process of the NPT review conference due to be held in 2010 in New York. Diplomatic sources say the Vienna meeting is confronted with an orchestrated attempt on the part of some Western capitals to eliminate any reference to the need for Israel to join the NPT. A reference on the need for all countries in the Middle East to join the NPT first appeared in an official document at the end of the 1995 NPT review conference in return for Egypt's agreement to sign an indefinite extension of the NPT. At the end of the 2000 NPT review conference Egypt, in coordination with other like-minded countries, managed to include a direct reference to Israel, alongside Pakistan and India. In 2005 the NPT review conference stalled over whether the Middle East should be included on the agenda. "We faced a clear attempt on the part of the US to remove precisely why we signed up for the indefinite extension in the first place," an Egyptian diplomat told Al-Ahram Weekly. Cairo, he said, was not the least concerned about whether it is blamed for stalling the conference. "What we care for is not to be fooled again." Egyptian officials complain about the US determination to exempt Israel from nuclear non- proliferation responsibilities. According to one, "we were told to join the NPT in the 1960s to encourage Israel to follow but Israel did not and then we were told to join the Conventional Test Ban Treaty to encourage Israel to join the NPT but again Israel did not. We cannot be fooled again." Egypt was alarmed when it received a letter sent by the British foreign secretary, in her capacity as the rotating chair of the 2010 NPT review conference, calling for the launch of the preparatory process, and noted it included no reference to the Middle East. "For us this issue is non-negotiable. We are talking about one of the obvious elements of the NPT -- the universality of the regime," says Assistant Foreign Minister Naila Gabr. Egypt wants the 2010 conference, which normally lasts for three weeks, to examine specific issues related to the universality of the comprehensive safeguards system, especially since Israeli nuclear facilities have never been inspected by the IAEA. Moreover, Egypt is worried about the guarantees provided to non-nuclear states to ensure they can peacefully use nuclear energy. The hostility expressed by the West, especially the US and Britain, towards Iran over its nuclear research sends a message to states keen to develop nuclear programmes for peaceful uses: whatever programmes they undertake can easily be interrupted if they are deemed too advanced. Meanwhile, Cairo has been sending messages to capitals concerned, including Washington, that it has no plans to join the OPCW unless a serious and sustainable effort is made to address the Israeli nuclear file. The message was delivered to OPCW Director-General Rogelio Pfirter this week during talks in Cairo. Pfirter was confronted with a wave of objections to the accession of Egypt to the OPCW prior to the dismantling of Israel's nuclear arsenal. Egypt rejected Pfirter's suggestion that by joining the OPCW Egypt would help the cause of peace in the region. It argued instead that the growing military imbalance in the Middle East in favour of Israel is the main reason behind the failure of efforts to establish peace in the region.
