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The cable reports that “Israel has urged the IAEA to view the forum
as ‘a one-time educational event’” with a purely “intellectual” outcome.
The Israelis objected to the inclusion of representatives of the Arab
League as observers, as "not consistent with the learning process".
When agreement could not be reached on the form the forum would
take, it was postponed. The idea was revived by the US in 2007 in an
attempt to “head off” the inclusion of an “Israeli Nuclear Threat” (INT)
item on the agenda for that year's IAEA General Conference. The US
consistently opposes language in IAEA, NPT and UN resolutions on
nuclear issues in the Middle East that refers specifically to Israel, even
though Israel is the only nuclear weapons power in the region.
The INT item was proposed by the Arab group of IAEA member
states, partly due to their frustration with the lack of progress on
establishing a Middle East Nuclear Weapon Free Zone, and called upon
Israel to accede to the NPT and place all its nuclear facilities under
comprehensive IAEA safeguards.
According to a July 2007 cable from the US Ambassador to the
IAEA, Israeli Ambassador Israel Michaeli agreed that “US pressure to
agree to a Forum” could be a “joint of leverage” to persuade Egypt to use
its influence within the Arab group to drop the proposed INT agenda item.
The cable reports that Michaeli said that the Israeli “government
would not be ‘very happy’ about a Forum” but if it was “based on known
elements meaning the agreed 2004 agenda, Israel could countenance it”.
In the end, a forum on "Experience of Possible Relevance to the
Creation of a Nuclear-Weapons-Free Zone in the Middle East" took place
last year. The forum produced a document that concluded with four
general proposals for taking the process forward, but no specific or
binding measures.
Since the establishment of a Middle East Nuclear Weapon Free Zone
would require Israel to declare and ultimately give up its nuclear arsenal,
Israel and the US have preferred to focus on the threat allegedly posed by
Iran’s nuclear program.
While Israel’s official “red line” is Iran having the ability to make
what Israel deems to be enough weapons grade uranium to make a bomb,