Egypt’s Mursi Challenges Israel, Claims Arab Leadership

By Nicole Gaouette on September 26, 2012
Bloomberg News

Egypt’s President Mohamed Mursi staked a claim for his country’s renewed leadership of the Arab world by calling for changes in the international economic system and indirectly challenging Israel for possessing a nuclear arsenal.

“The will of the people, especially in our region, no longer tolerates the continued non-accession of any country to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the non-application of the safeguards regime to their nuclear facilities, especially if this is coupled with irresponsible policies or arbitrary threats,” Mursi told the annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in New York today.

Israel, which is not a NPT signatory, has never acknowledged that it possesses nuclear weapons, although U.S. intelligence officials estimate that it has as many as 200 of them.

In recent months, Israel has warned that it may attack Iran’s nuclear facilities if it thinks the Tehran government is getting too close to developing a nuclear weapon. Iran, whose known uranium enrichment facilities are under international safeguards to prevent diversion for weapons, insists that its program is solely for civilian use.

Mursi went on to deliver a rebuke that seemed equally directed at the U.S. and President Barack Obama, who yesterday said the U.S. would do whatever it takes to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon and warned that time isn’t unlimited for diplomacy to resolve the issues.

“The acceptance by the international community of the principle of pre-emptiveness or the attempt to legitimize it is in itself a serious matter, and must be firmly confronted to avoid the prevalence of the law of the jungle,” Mursi said.