By Ahmad Shihadah
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

CAIRO, Egypt – Israel may come under new pressure next month at a UN meeting on atomic weapons as the United States, Britain and France consider backing Egypt’s call for a zone in the Middle East free of nuclear arms, envoys said.

The 189 signatories to the 1970 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) will meet at United Nations headquarters in New York for a May 3-28 conference on the troubled pact whose credibility, analysts say, has been harmed by the atomic programs of Iran and North Korea and the failure of the big nuclear powers to disarm.

Egypt is to open an international front to push Israel into signing the Non-Proliferation Treaty as pressure mounts on Tel Aviv to account for its atomic plans.

Cairo advocates holding a regional conference on an “internationally and effectively verifiable treaty for the establishment of a nuclear-weapons-free zone in the Middle East,” a draft paper addressed to the NPT said Tuesday. It added that Egypt will invite all Mideast states to the planned meeting.

Israel, like India and Pakistan, never signed the treaty and is not officially attending the conference. The Jewish state is presumed to have a sizable nuclear arsenal, although it has never confirmed or denied having atomic weapons.

Diplomats said backing from the five permanent Security Council members — the NPT’s five official nuclear powers — would help ensure broad support for Egypt’s plan next month.

One Western envoy said Egypt’s insistence on a conference with a negotiating mandate was the main “sticking point,” while another expressed the hope that Egypt would compromise during intensive negotiations on the issue in the coming weeks.

Israel’s U.N. mission had no official comment on the Egyptian proposal. But an Israeli diplomat told Reuters the Jewish state would be ready to discuss issues like establishing a nuclear-weapon-free zone once there is peace in the Middle East.

For More Information, Please;

The Daily Star – Egypt Seeks UN Pressure On Israel Over Nuclear Arms – 21 April 2010

The Washington Post – Egypt Seeks U.N. Pressure On Israel Over Nuclear Arms – 21 April 2010

Press TV – Egypt Summit To Pressure Nuclear Israel – 20 April 2010