Union plans Middle East WMD talks

By Andrew Beatty

Date: 20/01/05

The EU is planning to host talks involving both Israel and Arab governments in a bid to create a zone free of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in the Middle East.

Annalisa Giannella, foreign policy chief Javier Solana's personal representative on WMD, told European Voice that an informal round table could be held in June.

It would be the first meeting to bring together Arab and Israeli representatives to discuss the previously taboo issues of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.

Giannella said she hoped the meeting would "examine how we could contribute to a WMD-free zone in the Middle East".

Ten Mediterranean countries including Syria, Israel and the Palestinian Authority are to attend, as well as EU member states. "If we can have them all around the table that is already progress, we can take it from there," she said.

The scope of the agenda has yet to be finalised and could prove contentious. Israel fears the meeting could be used as an opportunity for Arab states to challenge its nuclear weapons programme, whose existence it always denied. Experts estimate that Israel has up to 200 nuclear warheads and is thought to be the only nuclear power in the Middle East, a point Arab states are keen to stress.

But diplomats will press for the whole range of non-proliferation issues to be taken into consideration.

Both Israel and Syria are thought to have undeclared chemical weapons, while Israel is suspected of possessing biological weapons and Syria is believed to run biological weapons research programmes. Israel is also concerned that Egypt could have the means to build a nuclear weapon.

The meeting is to focus on establishing confidence-building measures. Israeli diplomats say such measures could include the states agreeing to implement the "dozens" of non-proliferation agreements they are party to.

But the final goal remains a long way off. Israel is unlikely to agree to a regional disarmament deal before a comprehensive peace agreement is reached on the Israel-Palestine question.

But Giannella is optimistic: "It is a political process, it is a start," she says, and "despite the difficulties the EU should take the initiative again".

Article reports on EU plans to host a conference in June 2005 with ten Mediterranean states, including Syria, Israel and the Palestinian Authority, on the creation of a zone free of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in the Middle East.