Turkish President Abdullah Gul said he will call for a Middle East totally free of nuclear weapons when he addresses the UN General Assembly later this week. “We would like to see our region free of nuclear weapons,” Gul told The Associated Press in an interview on Monday. “The region should not be under such a threat.” Gul said he intends to raise the issue when he addresses the world body on Thursday. Gul has called in the past for a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East, but his latest comments come amid deteriorating relations with Israel following the May 31 Israeli commando raid on a Turkish ferry that was part of an aid flotilla attempting to break the blockade of the Gaza Strip. Eight Turks and a Turkish-American were killed. Israel is generally recognized to have assembled a sizable arsenal of nuclear warheads since the 1960s, but declines to discuss its status as a nuclear power. Gul's remarks may likely antagonize the United States, because apart from being a strong ally, Washington sees any move to raise the issue of Israel's nuclear arsenal as potentially destabilizing Israel-Palestinian peace talks. Last week, the Obama administration said Arab nations risk contributing to a failure of the Mideast talks if they continue to question Israel over its nuclear program. US officials say it would be possible to have a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East even if Israel's arsenal remains intact. This may mean the US intends to maintain Israel's nuclear hegemony over the Arab region, which allows the Zionist state to act with impunity against defenseless Palestinians and continue its ever-expanding occupation. With years of American military aid, Israel has the most powerful and sophisticated army in the Middle East. It has also been accused of using banned weapons in past conflicts and raids. While the US has been tight-lipped about Israel's nukes, experts in the region agree that a nuclear-free Middle East is key to future peace and prosperity. Gul said Turkey, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council, only wants to ensure stability and security in the region. The US has been more concerned about the nuclear program in Iran, which is under four sets of Security Council sanctions for refusing to stop its uranium enrichment. Tehran maintains that all of its nuclear activities are for peaceful purposes. It is a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency. “Iran must do what it has thus far failed to do – meet its obligations and ensure the rest of the world of the peaceful nature of its intentions,” US Energy Secretary Steven Chu told delegates in Vienna Monday for the IAEA'S General Conference. Gul said Turkish officials do not assume that Iran has a fully peaceful nuclear program, but “of course we cannot accuse Iran” of pursuing nuclear weapons without evidence. “We want Iran to be transparent” with the IAEA officials, he said. “We in Turkey would like to see a peaceful, a diplomatic solution to this problem.” Turkey has opposed sanctions against Iran as ineffective and damaging to its interests with an important neighbor. Instead, Turkey and Brazil have tried to broker a deal under which Iran would send much of its low enriched uranium to Turkey in exchange for the higher enriched uranium it needs for a research reactor. Though it sought to tackle the core issue, the deal was not welcomed by Washington. Gul said Israel's deadly attack on the flotilla attempting to breach the Israeli blockade of Gaza would be best handled under international law, but also suggested that Israel still needs to take public responsibility for the attack. “It is not possible to act as though this incident did not take place,” he said. “In the old world, in the old times, if such an incident were to take place, wars would follow. But in our world today, it is international law that has to be taken into consideration. “It is up to Israel. They have to do what is necessary since they are the ones that created the incident,” he said. Earlier news reports had said that Gul and Israeli President Shimon Peres planned to meet in New York this week on the sidelines of the Clinton Global Initiative being held alongside the gathering of world leaders. Gul told the AP that no such meeting had ever been scheduled. Peres said Monday that the planned meeting was scrapped because Turkey had set unacceptable conditions. Turkey has demanded that Israel apologize for the flotilla raid, and senior Israeli officials on Monday confirmed that Gul had made such an apology a condition for the meeting. Two international panels are looking into the flotilla attack: the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, and a separate UN panel formed. Israeli commandos said they opened fire in “self-defense” after encountering “unexpected resistance” from unarmed aid workers when the soldiers raided the ferry.
