The seminar explored ideas that could provide movement rid the Middle East of nuclear weapons. Egypt has been a leading proponent of this idea in international meetings, but for over 30 years it has seemed impossible to turn this idea into reality.

Now, with the region poised to go nuclear, (Egypt has stated its intention to develop a new nuclear power plant, all the Arabic Gulf States have also expressed interest), some would say this is the worst time to try to rid the region of the nuclear threat.

But Greenpeace believes that it is this crisis point of imminent nuclear development, which provides the opportunity for movement. As well as being unnecessary and expensive, nuclear power also brings the potential for developing nuclear weapons. And in a region fraught with tension, this proliferation risk would be a terrible development so terrible that some states may have second thoughts.

The discussion yesterday was informative and robust. There is a strong national sentiment in favour of developing nuclear power in Egypt. Though currently rich in oil and gas, this country will run out of those resources in 30 or 40 years. It is understandable that Egypt is looking to its energy future, though we believe that better alternatives exist.

Greenpeace’s Paul Horsman presented a paper to this meeting which outlined how Egypt could meet its energy needs 80 times over from renewable sources. Further, comparing the construction costs of solar and nuclear energy, unit for unit solar power is between 1.5 and 3 times cheaper than nuclear.

The concept of a region free of nuclear threats is not new, and all countries pay lip service to the notion. But rhetoric is far from reality, and so far this idea has not come to fruition.

On the positive side, based on yesterday’s high level discussions, there is clearly an eagerness to consider moves towards ridding the region of nuclear threats. These decision makers and opinion formers engaged in a thought provoking series of discussions about how to break the gridlock in the region over which must come first – peace or disarmament.

Traditionally, the Arabic states have insisted on eliminating all weapons of mass destruction as a first step, while Israel has held fast to the concept of peace as a prerequisite to scrapping nuclear weapons. The discussion yesterday focused on practical steps to move this stalemate forward – to build confidence while agreeing to disarm.

While we do not expect this tour to bring immediate results, the discussions in the Alexandria Library planted the seeds of further development, which could on day see the dream of a nuclear free Middle East bear sweet fruit.

Omer