JERUSALEM – Israeli and Iranian nuclear envoys held an unprecedented, if brief, conversation last month at a closed-door Middle East disarmament conference in Egypt, an Israeli official said yesterday.
Israel and Iran attended a September 29th-30th meeting in Cairo of the International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament, an unofficial forum established by the Australian and Japanese governments, its website said.
An Israeli official with knowledge of the talks said that at one point, Iran’s delegate, Ali Ashghar Soltanieh, asked his Israeli counterpart at the conference, Meirav Zafary-Odiz, about her country’s nuclear capabilities.
“She gave her answers, and later the Israeli delegation addressed a question in the same vein to the Iranians, which was answered,” the official said, adding that the exchange took place in open session and that the sides did not meet privately.
Iran said no separate meeting took place between the Israeli and Iranian delegations.
Iran’s decades-old refusal to recognise Israel has honed global fears over a nuclear project that Tehran insists is peaceful, but that Israelis – assumed to have the region’s only atomic arsenal – consider a mortal threat.
While world powers try to talk Iran into curbing technology with bomb-making potential, analysts see Israel examining options such as pre-emptive strikes, enhanced defences and indirect diplomacy designed to defuse the perceived threat. Israeli and Iranian envoys often participate in UN forums such as the International Atomic Energy Agency, where Mr Soltanieh is Tehran’s ambassador.
The Israeli official said the Cairo talks were unprecedented in that they featured a direct dialogue. Asked about the exchange, a spokeswoman for Israel’s Atomic Energy Commission, where Ms Zafary-Odiz has a senior position, said only that “Such an event did take place.”
Word of the meeting resurfaced in Israeli daily Haaretz on Thursday after Australian newspaper The Age broke the story last week.
The UN’s nuclear watchdog on Wednesday presented a draft deal to Iran and three world powers for approval by today.
Israel does not discuss its nuclear capabilities, under its “ambiguity” policy, billed as warding off enemies while avoiding the kind of public provocations that can trigger arms races. Successive Israeli governments have voiced interest in entering a regional disarmament regime once a comprehensive peace arrangement was reached in the Middle East. – (Reuters)