@plawolf: why do you believe that mutual disarmament between Iran and Israel has any chance of success, when even India and Pakistan are unable to disarm? In fact, why do you believe that any country in the world, would give up its nuclear weapons once it has acquired it?
Because of the very unique set of circumstances Iran finds itself it.
India and Pakistan are a bad example because India has far grander ambitions then merely dominating Pakistan. India wants to claim a place at the world's top table and be able to match China in every way so it has no choice but to nuke up. And Pakistan cannot give up its nukes because of Indian weapons.
However, if say, China came knowing on India's door and offered to fully disarm in exchange for India doing the same, do you think the Indians would not think very long and hard about that offer? of course China cannot make such an offer because of American, British, Russian and French weapons and all these countries will point to each other's nuclear arsenals as reasons why they can't disarm.
However, this is not such an issue in the middle east.
Israel cannot point to someone else's nuclear weapons and honestly claim that their weapons are a deterrent against them, so their argument for why they need nuclear weapons are completely unjustifiable. Especially in the face of their conventional dominance.
Iran wants to be a leading power of the region, but they can never do that with Israeli nuclear weapons a constant threat. No matter how much they develop their conventional forces, it all counts for nought against an Israeli nuclear attack.
However, if Israel lost its nuclear weapons and Iran was free from sanctions and able to do business with the entire world freely, then they can fully exploit their natural resources and aim to become as wealthy as Saudi Arabia, Dubai or any of the other oil rich gulf states. With that kind of wealth and new access to western and eastern technologies, Iran would have a very good chance to achieve the position it wants for itself without a need for nuclear weapons.
In other words, Iran can get what it wants without nuclear weapons provided Israel disarm.
Making such an offer at the same time as their nuclear test would also throw the UN into chaos and effectively head off all threat of sanctions and condemnation and neatly shift all the pressure onto Israel.
This would be like Iran saying, 'well we gone and broke our word and developed a banned weapon, but we did it not because we covet such a device but as a desperate act to force you, the the world, to deal with a wrong you have been happy to ignore for decades - Israeli nuclear weapons. Now do what is right and make them disarm and we will gladly do the same, or do nothing and prove all your rhetoric about a nuclear free world to be total crap and STFU.'
No matter how the west plays it, Iran wins, and that will boost their influence and position far more effectively then any amount of nuclear weapons.
Somehow I can see Ahmadinejad positively rubbing his hands together and licking his lips with glee at the prospect of standing in front of the UN assembly and delivering such a speech and savoring the look on the faces of the US and Israeli delegations. That alone may be enough to sell this idea to him.
