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, tolda 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.
