Israel, Iran talk about nuke free zone?

AFP:

Israel said Thursday that its atomic expert met an Iranian official over the chances of declaring the Middle East a nuclear-free zone, in the first direct talks between the archfoes in 30 years.

The spokeswoman for Israel's Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC) Yael Doron told AFP the commission's representative had held several meetings with an Iranian official "in a regional context" and under Australia's auspices.

Iran denied that it had held any nuclear talks with the Jewish state.

Doron declined to give details of the meetings, but the Haaretz daily said the officials discussed the chances of declaring the Middle East a nuclear-free zone during the talks in September, the first between the two archfoes to be officially disclosed since the shah of Iran was deposed in 1979.

Haaretz said Meirav Zafary-Odiz, IAEC director of policy and arms control, and Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's delegate to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA,) met several times in Cairo at the end of September.

Also at the meeting were representatives of the Arab League, Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia, Turkey, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates and Saudia Arabia, as well as European and US officials, the daily said.

It said the meeting was held under the auspices of the International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation set up at the initiative of Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

Iran's state television website dismissed the reports.

"This lie is a kind of psychological operation designed to affect the constant success of Iran's dynamic diplomacy in the Geneva and Vienna meetings," atomic organisation spokesman Ali Shirzadian was quoted as saying.

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The Iranian response is pretty strange. There has been nothing really dynamic about their diplomacy, although there appears to be movement toward a plan that has been on the table for years to enrich their uranium in another country.

The nuclear free zone has been an objectives of many of the Arab states for some time and it is surprising that Israel is willing to consider it. It puts the Iranians in a difficult spot since their ambitions for nuclear weapons are so obvious. By pushing the Israelis away on this point, they also push the Arab states away and further isolate Iran.

The Israelis appear to have called their bluff on nuclear weapons.