ISRAELI PRIME minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decided not to participate in next week’s Washington summit on nuclear security after Jerusalem received information that Muslim states were planning to use the event to press for Israel to join the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
According to Israeli officials, nine or 10 Muslim states, spearheaded by Egypt and Turkey, would have used Mr Netanyahu’s presence at the gathering to demand that Israel open up its nuclear facilities to international inspection.
Israeli deputy prime minister Dan Meridor, who holds the intelligence and atomic energy portfolio, will represent Israel at the event in place of Mr Netanyahu.
Israeli officials expressed disappointment that the gathering, which will be attended by representatives of more than 40 states and was designed to focus on the dangers of nuclear terrorism , may be “hijacked” by Arab and Muslim delegates to condemn Israel’s nuclear capability.
Israel is one of only four countries, along with India, Pakistan and North Korea, which is not a signatory to the NPT. According to foreign media reports, the Jewish state is widely believed to possess several hundred nuclear warheads, as well as the means to deliver them.
In 1986, Mordechai Vanunu, who worked as a technician at Israel’s top-secret Dimona plant in the Negev desert, leaked details of Israel’s nuclear programme to the British Sunday Times.
He was subsequently captured by Mossad agents, brought back to Israel and sentenced to 18 years in prison.
Ehud Olmert, while serving as Israeli prime minister in December 2006, included Israel among a list of nuclear states, a week after US defence secretary Robert Gates had used a similar form of words during a senate hearing.
Three years ago, former US president Jimmy Carter claimed that Israel had “150 or more” nuclear weapons in its arsenal.
Under a decades-old policy of “nuclear ambiguity”, Israel has never confirmed or denied possessing atomic weapons, maintaining that the country “will not be the first to introduce nuclear weapons in the Middle East”.
Mr Netanyahu, who only announced two days ago that he would be attending the summit, intended to use the event to highlight Israeli concerns over Iran’s nuclear programme. The Israeli leader has stated on more than one occasion that Israel cannot allow Tehran to acquire a nuclear potential.
Israel has been pressing for years for “crippling sanctions” against Iran, while at the same time refusing to rule out any option to stop Tehran becoming a nuclear power.
Mr Netanyahu also intended to raise the issue of terrorists acquiring nuclear weapons.
“The danger that nuclear weapons, even crude nuclear weapons, could find their way into the hands of terrorists,” he said, “would have dire consequences for all humanity”.
Reacting to Mr Netanyahu’s cancellation, US president Barack Obama’s national security adviser, Jim Jones, said Israel did not want to be a catalyst for changing the theme of the summit, but will still have a “robust” delegation at the gathering.
The prime minister’s decision not to travel to Washington comes at a particularly turbulent time in bilateral relations.
As part of his efforts to breathe new life into the Middle East peace process, Mr Obama last month presented Mr Netanyahu with a list of steps Washington would like Israel to take.
Israel has still not replied to the proposals, which reportedly include a suspension of construction in east Jerusalem and a promise to extend the 10-month moratorium on building at West Bank settlements.