Excerpt from Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech at AIPAC on March 5, 2012:
If Iran gets nuclear weapons, this would set off a mad dash by Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey, and others to acquire nuclear weapons of their own. The world’s most volatile region would become a nuclear tinderbox waiting to go off.
Turkey has (along with Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, and all of the other countries in Western Asia and Northern Africa - except Israel) signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and Turkey meets all of the requirements of this treaty.
Israel has not and does not.
There have been dozens of U.S. nuclear weapons in Turkey for about half a century and Turkey lived under the real threat of being a primary target of a possible USSR nuclear attack for decades.
Turkey carried that burden without getting its knickers in a twist or resorting to reckless behavior that threatened to start a major war in the region or damaged the world’s economies.
Turkey, unlike Israel, has also never made a secret mad dash to build scores (or hundreds) of nuclear bombs which would make the world’s most volatile region a nuclear tinderbox waiting to go off.
Prime Minister Netanyahu should leave Turkey out of his own latest mad dash - recklessly trying to provoke another contrived war and drag the U.S. into it.
... and leave Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and others out of it, too.
- * - * -
It is interesting to note that the level of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s rhetoric about Iran’s alleged nuclear programs has increased as the time for the UN-sponsored conference on establishing a Middle East Nuclear Weapon Free Zone approaches.
The May, 2010 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference - which takes place every five years – called for a conference to be held in 2012 to establish a nuclear weapon free Middle East and for the conference to be attended by all States in the region.
In October, 2011 Jaakko Laajava, Finland's Under-Secretary of State, was appointed by the UN as the facilitator for the conference, and it is reported that all States in the Middle East have agreed to attend the conference which will be in Finland later this year.
In the 2010 NPT Review Conference’s report Israel was singled out many times for it’s not having signed the NPT, and the U.S. reaction to the report was mixed.
From the statement by the National Security Advisor, General James L. Jones, on the Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference:
...
Despite our agreement to the final document, we have serious reservations about one aspect of the Middle East resolution it contains. The final document includes an agreement to hold a regional conference in 2012 to discuss issues relevant to a Middle East zone free of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and their delivery systems. The United States has long supported such a zone, although our view is that a comprehensive and durable peace in the region and full compliance by all regional states with their arms control and nonproliferation obligations are essential precursors for its establishment.
...
The United States will not permit a conference or actions that could jeopardize Israel’s national security. We will not accept any approach that singles out Israel or sets unrealistic expectations.
...
It is the position of the U.S. and Israel that a peace agreement must be reached before a Middle East Nuclear Weapon Free Zone can be established.
Note: The Middle East is defined in the report to include Algeria, Bahrain, the Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.