Should the Nuclear NPT Focus on Israel?

I support Nuclear Nonproliferation, and am glad that the signatories reached an agreement.

The 189 member nations of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT) last night struck a deal on a series of small steps towards disarmament, including a 2012 conference to discuss a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East.

After a month of wrangling, signatories to the NPT agreed a deal, despite "deep regrets" from the US over a clause singling out Israel’s unacknowledged nuclear arsenal. A 28-page final declaration requires the world’s five self-confessed nuclear states – the US, Russia, France, Britain and China – to speed up arms reductions. They will report on progress in four years.

But the main point of contention was over an Arab idea for a zone free of weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East, intended to put public pressure on Israel to scrap its nuclear weapons.

Initially reluctant, the US changed tack and went along with the proposal. Iran and Syria had expressed dissent over whether the treaty was tough enough, but no objections were raised in the final session, and Iran’s chief delegate, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, joined other nations in applause at the deal in the UN’s general assembly hall.

"All eyes the world over are watching us," said the conference’s president, Libran Cabactulan of the Philippines, bringing down a gavel on the agreement.

For the US, undersecretary of state Ellen Tauscher said the document "advances President Obama’s vision" of a world free of nuclear weapons. She said the US would work with Middle Eastern nations to organise a 2012 conference; but she added that its ability to do so had been "seriously jeopardised because the final document singles out Israel in the Middle East section, a fact that the US deeply regrets".

Israel, which, like nuclear-armed India and Pakistan, never signed the NPT, is presumed to have a sizable nuclear arsenal. It is not participating in the meeting. Israel’s prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, is due to meet Barack Obama in Washington on Monday. Israel had said it would attend a Middle Eastern disarmament conference as long as it was not singled out for criticism.

Signatories of the 1970 NPT have spent a tense month trying to bolster it after crises over Iran, North Korea, and the slow pace of disarmament by the big five.

The NPT is often described as a "bargain" under which the nuclear weapons states move to disarm, while others forgo seeking the bomb in return for help to develop civilian nuclear programmes. Supporters say it was becoming dangerously eroded by cumulative setbacks… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <The Guardian>

Nuclear weapons are harmful to living things. To eliminate them altogether would be the second greatest gift humanity could bestow upon ourselves, behind preventing global climate change.

I support the idea of a nuclear free zone in the Middle East and agree that Israel should sign the NPT and scrap its nuclear arsenal.  However I think it hypocritical to focus on Israel alone.  India and Pakistan also have nuclear arsenals.  Israel has never attempted to spread nuclear weapons technology outside their own borders, but Pakistan has.  Should there not also be a nuclear free zone in South Asia with equal pressure put on India and Pakistan to scrap their nuclear arsenals and join the NPT?