Israel opposes holding conference on nuclear-free mideast

Israel has expressed its strong opposition to an Arab initiative, supported by the Obama administration, to hold a conference that would debate the possibility of a nuclear-free Middle East. The conference would take place in Helsinki toward the end of 2012, or early in 2013. Director of the Israeli Nuclear Energy Committee Brig.Gen. Shaul Horev, who reports directly to Prime Minister Netanyahu, immediately rejected the idea, reports, Israeli daily (Haaretz) reported. Horev said ,”Nuclear demilitarization in the Middle East, according to the Israeli position, will be possible only after the establishment of peace and trust among the states of the area, as a result of a local initiative, not of external coercion.”