Israeli, Iranian officials attended nuclear talks in Cairo (Roundup)

Oct 22, 2009, 11:46 GMT

Tel Aviv - Israeli and Iranian representatives recently took part in a conference in Cairo on nuclear non-proliferation in the Middle East, the Israel Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC) said Thursday, but Tehran said the report on the meeting was untrue.

IAEC Spokeswoman Yael Doron, commenting on a report in the Israeli Ha'aretz daily, told the German Press Agency dpa however that 'no dialogue or interaction' between the Israeli and Iranian representatives took place at the meeting in Cairo in September. She gave no further details.

Iran however dismissed the report, with the spokesman for the Iranian Atomic Organization (IAO) telling the website of state television that 'The reports in this regard are sheer lies and there has been no meeting in Cairo.'

Ali Shirzdian said that the report in the authoritative Israeli newspaper was 'a psychological operation to undermine the successful (nuclear) meetings in Geneva (October 1) and Vienna (October 19-21).'

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry confirmed that the non-proliferation conference did indeed take place.

According Ha'aretz, the conference organized by the International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (ICNND) took place behind closed doors, with participants committed to secrecy.

The daily said that the first direct meeting between representatives from Israel and Iran since the fall of the Shah in 1979 was marked by exchanges between the Israeli representative, Meirav Zafary-Odiz, and Iranian Ali Asghar Soltanieh, but these took place only within three panel sessions.

Zarafy-Odiz refused to reply to the Iranian question of whether Israel possess nuclear weapons. Israel has long refused to confirm or deny reports that it has its its own atomic arsenal, but has said it would not be the first country to introduce nuclear weapons into the Middle East.

Zafary-Odiz said Israel is willing in principle to discuss a nuclear-free Middle East, but regional security must be strengthened, security arrangements must be agreed upon and a peace agreement must be sealed before Israel would consider the topic.

Soltanieh said Iran was not trying to obtain nuclear weapons and not endanger Israel. His country's growing arsenal of missiles was for defensive, not offensive, purposes, he said.

Israel regards Iran as its biggest existential threat, given Tehran's attempts at nuclear armament, and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's repeated statements that the Jewish state should be wiped off the map.

The ICNND was founded by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, and is chaired by a former foreign minister of Australia, Gareth Evans, and former Japanese foreign minister of Japan, Yoriko Kawaguchi.

Also participating in the Cairo conference, according to Ha'aretz, were representatives from the Arab League, Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia, Turkey, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, as well as European and American officials.