The shortest road towards nuclear security is disarmament and safeguards, Egypt said this week in Washington, Dina Ezzat reports It was against a backdrop of a last-minute Israeli withdrawal that the first ever nuclear security summit convened this week in Washington at the invitation of US President Barack Obama. Practically on the eve of the opening of the summit in the US capital, on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu announced he would not be going. The alleged reason as provided by the Israeli media was the intention of Egypt and Turkey to draw the summit's attention to the unchecked and unguarded Israeli nuclear arsenal. Egypt and Turkey, according to quotes attributed to Israeli officials, had intended to call on the world community to pressure Israel to end its policy of nuclear ambiguity and subscribe to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) as the last Middle East country to do so. Egyptian sources affirmed that this was the intention. In the wake of the Israeli withdrawal, however, Egypt chose to tone down a little the original wording of a speech drafted for the summit. Amendments were made to keep the same message but to adjust the wording to make it less confrontational, according to an informed Egyptian source. The amendments, he added, were not made upon the request of the US but in light of the awareness that Washington would rather avoid adding salt to the wound. Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit, who headed Egypt's delegation to the 47-member state summit, complemented his subtle references to the Israeli status in his statement before the summit with a set of press statements where he made direct references and subtle criticism of Israel's nuclear status. "Egypt draws the attention of the international community that it should undertake its responsibility to subject all nuclear materials and facilities to the safeguards system while noting that some nuclear facilities are still exempted from the International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] safeguards system," Abul-Gheit told the Washington summit on Monday. The foreign minister also insisted that the best way to achieve nuclear security is to pursue systematic and comprehensive nuclear disarmament and, until that happens, to stick to unequivocal safeguards. Turkey, whose Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan headed his country's delegation to the nuclear security summit, refrained as well from making a direct reference to Israel. Contrary to initial plans, Erdogan did not specifically mention Israel's nuclear programme. However, he did criticise Israel for its treatment of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and called Gaza an "open-air prison". Meanwhile, Erdogan said that his country does not want nuclear weapons in "our region". He also said Ankara "would like to see all countries possessing nuclear weapons to work to eliminate them within a certain time frame." As for Iran's nuclear ambitions, an issue that Obama fervently took up in side talks with the five permanent leaders of the UN Security Council, Erdogan noted that Tehran had denied it is pursuing a nuclear weapon, but he also said that the IAEA, the world's nuclear watchdog, had faulted Iran for a lack of transparency. Egypt and Turkey joined the rest of the 47 members of the unprecedented nuclear security summit in committing to take measures, including the exchange of information, to prevent terror groups from accessing, much less using, loose nukes that are assessed to be available in some 10 countries. "We welcome and join President Obama's call to secure all vulnerable nuclear material in four years as we work to enhance nuclear security," the final communiqué of the nuclear security summit concluded. The statement also reflected on the commitment of participants to pursue "cooperation to effectively prevent and respond to incidents of nuclear trafficking." Obama had made it clear that he has serious concerns about the possible access of Al-Qaeda to nuclear material. To prevent such a dramatic scenario, the US president said before the summit that the world need "not to simply talk but act". According to the final communiqué whatever kind of action to be pursued by the world, it should not "infringe on the rights of states to develop and utilise nuclear energy for peaceful purposes." Egyptian diplomats told Al-Ahram Weekly that for Cairo this is a crucial point. Egypt, they added, is not prepared to forgo its right to pursue peaceful nuclear energy when it is ready to, or to sign an additional protocol, as the US has been pressuring to, that allows IAEA inspectors excessive inspection rights. "This is out of the question. It is also out of the commitment undertaken by Egypt in the NPT," said one diplomat. He added that during its participation in the summit in Washington and in the regular review conference of the NPT, to be held for three weeks in New York starting early next month, Egypt will not succumb to any attempts to divert from the three main pillars of the NPT: nuclear disarmament, nuclear non- proliferation and access to peaceful nuclear energy. In New York next month, another Egyptian diplomat added firmly, the Egyptian delegation will make no compromises about naming names when it comes to Israel's nuclear status. "This is an NPT concern. In the review conference of 2000 we had a resolution on the Middle East that made an unprecedented reference to Israel and the need for it to join the NPT. This time, we intend to ask the world community to follow up on this resolution," he stated. The call to make the Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction has been proposed jointly by Egypt and Iran to the UN for over three decades. And despite the tense relations between Cairo and Tehran, the issue remains subject to cooperation between the two Middle East countries. This year, the cooperation is expected to continue. "We have a joint interest there," commented an Egyptian source. He promptly added that Egypt would nonetheless insist that Iran be more transparent with the world community on the nature and developments of its nuclear programme. Egypt has accepted an Iranian invitation to attend a nuclear conference early next week in Tehran. Foreign Minister Abul-Gheit has declined to personally head the country's delegation to the summit, delegating instead the head of Egypt's diplomatic mission in Tehran, Ambassador Alaa Youssef, and his own deputy assistant minister for disarmament affairs Khaled Shamaah. The Egyptian delegation to Tehran is instructed to steer clear of subscribing to any ultra-harsh language that might target Israel or the US. "We are not going there to give a stamp of approval to any calls to destroy this country or to attack that country. We are to pursue a global and regional interest of a Middle East free of nuclear weapons," the source added.
