Who's Threatening Whom?

By Teymoor Nabili
In Middle East
On October 22nd, 2009
Courtesy Of Al-Jazeera

Haaretz confirms the rumour broken by the Australian media last week:

Meirav Zafary-Odiz, director of policy and arms control for the Israel Atomic Energy Commission, and Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), met several times over September 29 and 30.

This contact was, apparently, in the broader context of multi-nation discussions on combatting nuclear proliferation. But interestingly, the only specific exchange between the two representatives on their nuclear standoff referenced not Israel's supposed fear of Iran's nuclear threat, but Iran's actual fear of Israel's nuclear threat.

In one of the discussions, Soltanieh directly asked Zafary-Odiz - and eyewitnesses say he spoke in an impassioned voice, "Do you or do you not have nuclear weapons?" Zafary-Odiz smiled, but did not respond.