Israel is less concerned than it was two years ago that the Arab world will pounce on it over its reported nuclear capabilities at the upcoming Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul because the Arab countries who led the charge in the past – Egypt, Syria and Libya – are not the same today, a head of Israel´s Atomic Energy Commission said on Tuesday.

"Egypt is not the same Egypt, Syria is not the same Syria, Libya is not the same Libya," said David Danieli, deputy director of the IAEC. He said if there was concern before the last Nuclear Security Summit in Washington 2010 that Israel would be the center of attention, the situation is different today.

"A lot of water has flowed through the Jordan since then," he said. "That concern does not exist today."

Israel will be represented at the nuclear summit next week by Intelligence Agencies Minister Dan Meridor, the same minister who represented Israel at the inaugural event in Washington in 2010, which was attended by dozens of government heads.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, however, was one head of government who did not attend, with Israeli officials at the time saying that the reason was because he was afraid that if he was there the Arab states would use the opportunity not to discuss nuclear terrorism, but rather to bash Israel for its reported nuclear capability.

Danieli said there was no dramatic reason why Meridor – who attended the first meeting – will be attending this one as well. "Today there is no active reason why the prime minster is not participating," he said.

Although some heads of state will be in attendance, notably US President Barack Obama, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, many other countries are sending lower level ministers, such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia and a number of European countries.

Danieli´s remarks came at a rare briefing for journalists held at the Sorek Nuclear Research Center located near Yavne. . The briefing was an apparent attempt by the IAEC to show transparency before the Seoul meeting.

The reactor at Sorek is the smaller of Israel´s two nuclear reactors, the other located at Dimona. While Israel does allow two international inspections of the Sorek facility a year, it does not allow inspections at the Dimona reactor.

Israel is not a member of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, though Danieli said the country does support the treaty´s goals. He repeated Israel´s position that it is too early to speak about a nuclear free Middle East, and that this must come within the context of an overall peace agreement.

Danieli also said that plans call for the 5-Megawatt nuclear reactor at Sorek to be phased out by 2018, and replaced by a unique electricity-based particle accelerator purchased from Germany that would serve many of the same research and medical functions as the current reactor. (© 1995-2011, The Jerusalem Post 03/20/12)