The increasingly violent clashes between security forces and protesters protests across the Arab world, inspired by the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, are causing some diplomats to raise doubts about the prospects for holding a conference next year on a WMD-free zone in the Middle East.
Jordan
January 2011
New START was ratified by the US Senate in December, and then by Russia last week. It is expected that the instruments of ratification will be exchanged to bring it into force by the end of this week, in Munich at the security conference.
Iran Update: Number 148
• Talks in Istanbul fail to break impasse
• Sanctions and economic impact on Iran
• Speculation intensifies over Iranian nuclear capabilities
• Foreign Minister Mottaki replaced with nuclear chief Salehi
• Revelations in the WikiLeaks cables
Talks in Istanbul fail to break impasse
Middle East nuclear weapons free zone subject of panel discussion at the NPT Review Conference
Anne Penketh, BASIC Program Director, backed Egypt's proposals for a Middle East international conference to work towards a Middle East nuclear weapons free zone at a side event on the margins of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference.
The May 21 event was hosted by Greenpeace whose Israeli representative, Sharon Dolev, described how she has been trying to raise awareness for nuclear disarmament in Israel, where discussion of that country's presumed nuclear arsenal of up to 200 weapons remains taboo.