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Iran: U.S. and Israeli Officials to Discuss Weapons Proliferation A U.S. delegation of a dozen diplomats, defense experts and intelligence officials, led by Undersecretary of State John Bolton, was expected to arrive in Israel today to discuss Iranian efforts to acquire nuclear technology and enhance its conventional arsenal. Israeli participants will include Minister Dan Meridor, National Security Adviser Uzi Dayan and Gideon Franks, head of the Atomic Energy Agency. The discussions are to focus on Russian nuclear assistance to Iran, which the United States has attempted to persuade to Russia to end. “The main purpose is to talk about where we are with the Russians and the Iranians,” said a senior Israeli administration official. The United States and Israel want to work to “deepen our coordination about how to deal with the problem” of Russian assistance to Iran, the official said. The recent discovery of a boat carrying weapons which, Israel said, came from Iran and were bound for the Palestinian Authority, made the issue of Iranian military capability especially important, the official said. “The issue of Iranian conventional weapons, advanced conventional weapons, nuclear missiles is even more timely than it has been,” the official said. Meanwhile, a report in the Washington Post this week said Iran has encountered problems developing its Shahab-3 missile and that some experts had overstated Russia’s weapons contribution to Iran (see GSN, Jan. 15). According to the article, some intelligence reports that expressed concern over Iran’s capabilities had been misguided by efforts from the U.S. Republican party and Israel to focus attention on Russian missile technology transfers to Iran, the Jerusalem Post reported. The Israeli and U.S. officials also plan to discuss issues involving Syria, Libya, Sudan and Iraq, the Jerusalem newspaper reported. Syria is working to develop nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, the Israeli official said (Janine Zacharia, Jerusalem Post, Jan. 16).
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