CAIRO, Jan. 29 (UPI) -- Military leaders from 17 Arab countries are meeting to prepare studies to confront weapons of mass destruction attacks amid growing nuclear threats.
The ten-day meeting of senior military trainers, which opened Monday at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo, comes as Arabs are concerned that Iran's crisis with the West, and Israel, over Tehran's nuclear program could prompt a destructive nuclear war in the region.
Arab League official in charge of national security, Muwaffak Nassar, said in opening remarks that the consultations are aimed to study means to face the increasing danger of the spread of WMD in the Middle East and their repercussions on national and international security and peace.
He said the conference will discuss means of preventing WMD "in light of Israel's possession of different types of these weapons and the possibility of using them in the future." Nassar called on Arab countries to deal with nuclear threats from the basis of the entire Middle East, "not just from the basis of Iran alone."
While Israel has not explicitly admitted to owning nuclear weapons, the Arabs believe the country possesses hundreds of nuclear warheads. They fear Israel might use such bombs to strike Iran's nuclear facilities if Tehran refuses to stop enriching uranium, which Iran insists is used only for peaceful nuclear energy purposes.
The 22-member Arab League has repeatedly called for a mechanism to secure the crises-packed Middle East from weapons of mass destruction.
For the next ten days, the military participants will discuss working papers on ways to confront the WMD threats and submit recommendations to the Arab chiefs of staff due to meet in April to endorse the proposals.
