Netanyahu Cancels Nuclear Summit Visit as GOP and Liz Cheney Cheer

From Barak Ravid and Reuters in Haaretz:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled his planned trip to Washington, where he was scheduled to participate in a nuclear security summit hosted by U.S. President Barack Obama, government officials said. …

Obama has invited more than 40 countries to the summit, which will deal with preventing the spread of nuclear weapons to terrorist groups.

Netanyahu was due to arrive in Washington on Monday evening and was set to take part in three or four conference sessions the follwoing day, before returning to Israel on Wednesday.

Officials said the PM canceled the trip over fears that a group of Muslim states, led by Egypt and Turkey, would demand that Israel sign up to the international Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, or NPT.

A senior government official told Haaretz that that Israel was ‘disappointed’ with developments in the run-up to the conference. …

In New Orleans, hundreds of party loyalists at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference applauded when they were informed Netanyahu had just canceled his visit to Washington.

At the gathering, Liz Cheney, daughter of former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, blasted Obama for his ‘shabby’ treatment of Netanyahu at the White House recently, saying it was ‘disgraceful’.

She added: ‘Israel is our strongest ally in the Middle East and one of our strongest allies anywhere around this globe. And President Obama is playing a reckless game of continuing down the path of diminishing America’s ties to Israel.’

One hundred eighty-nine countries, including all Arab states, are party to the NPT. Only Israel, India, Pakistan and North Korea are not. …

In late March the Arab League called for a Middle East free of nuclear weapons during a closed-door sessio, calling for a review of the 1970 NPT in order to create a definitive plan for eliminating nuclear weapons .

They also called on the UN to declare the Middle East as a nuclear-weapons-free region.