Delegates from Middle East, Muslim world to convene in Israel for nuclear conference

Around 100 representatives total will take part in the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization conference next week.

By YOSSI MELMAN
Arab leaders meet at an Arab League meeting (photo credit: REUTERS)
Arab leaders meet at an Arab League meeting
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Israel will host a prestigious, UN-sponsored international conference next week on the ban of nuclear tests. Around 100 representatives will take part in the meeting, including from Arab and Muslim states that don’t have diplomatic relations with Israel.
Jordanian and Egyptian delegates will also attend the conference. To ensure the safety of the participants, the Foreign Ministry issued safety and travel assurances.
The conference is organized by the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization headquartered in Vienna.
The purpose of the gathering is to evaluate and draw lessons from a recent on-site field exercise held in Jordan in November. Senior Israeli officials participated in the exercise, which tested the preparedness of the equipment used by CTBTO to monitor nuclear tests.
There are hundreds of monitoring stations in the world linked to the Vienna headquarters which are ready to monitor, identify and evaluate nuclear tests. Israel is home to two such stations and one laboratory in the small nuclear research reactor at Sorek, 20 km. south of Tel Aviv.
The CTBTO stations were the first ones to trace and identify North Korean nuclear tests nearly 10 years ago.
Lassina Zerbo, the executive secretary of CTBTO, will lead the international delegation.
He will meet with Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz and other Israeli officials. One of the purposes of the visit is to persuade Israel to ratify the treaty. Israel signed the treaty
Yossi Melman is an Israeli journalist and writer who specializes in security and intelligence affairs.  He is co-author of  Spies Against Armageddon: Inside Israel's Secret Wars. His blog is www.israelspy.com.