UNITED NATIONS (AP) Middle East countries are planning to meet later this month to try to break a deadlock over holding a high-level conference to ban nuclear weapons from the highly volatile region.
Mikhail Ulyanov, director of the department for security and disarmament affairs in Russia's Foreign Ministry, told a U.N. meeting Tuesday that efforts to hold a meeting have failed so far because "we have one shortcoming Israel was not a party."
Israel refuses to confirm or deny it has nuclear bombs though it is widely believed to have a nuclear arsenal and it has refused to join the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty
Ulyanov said all Mideast countries have been invited to a meeting in Glion, Switzerland on Oct. 21-22 to discuss arrangements for a conference.