By Reuters
Published 17:13 10.06.10
Latest update 17:13 10.06.10
Courtesy Of "Haaretz NewsPaper"
Story Highlights
- Iran, Arab states say Israel main threat in Middle East
- U.S., Israel deplore 'divisive' debate as distraction
- West says focus could hurt UN nuclear pact initiative
Western countries warned that honing in on Israel could jeopardize broader steps aimed at banning weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East.
"What the region needs is to come together in a cooperative, consensual way," Washington's envoy Glyn Davies said. "This is not going to happen if the parties of the region engage in name-calling, if they wag fingers at each other."
It was the first time the IAEA's policy-making board tackled the topic since 1991, coinciding with wider scrutiny of Israel after its raid on a Gaza-bound aid convoy and a UN conference which put its nuclear policy in the spotlight.
"Israel continues to defy the international community through its continued refusal to accede to the Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT)," Sudan's envoy Mahmoud El-Amin told the 35-nation meeting in Vienna on behalf of Arab states.
"The Israeli nuclear danger is reinforced by [its] aggressive policies towards Arab countries," he said.
By shunning the 40-year-old NPT Israel has not had to reject atomic arms or allow the IAEA to probe all of its nuclear sites. India, Pakistan and North Korea are also outside the NPT.
Signatories of the pact - nearly all of the world's nations - last month called for a conference in 2012 to discuss banning weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East. If realized, the zone could ultimately force Israel to join the treaty.
Iran, angered by a fourth round of UN sanctions passed against it on Wednesday over its nuclear program seized on the debate to accuse the West of "double standards" and discrimination.
Iran rejects Western allegations it is seeking to develop nuclear weapons, arguing that its nuclear program has only peaceful aims.
"There is only one potential threat to the security of the region...which is the nuclear weapons capability of Israel," Iranian ambassador Ali Asghar Soltanieh said.
He said the West's reluctance to discuss Israel while pressuring Iran was "very worrisome" because it protected those outside the NPT and could provoke members to withdraw from it. He said Iran had no intention of doing this as of now.
Iran is seen by Western nations as an NPT renegade and bomb risk for hiding sensitive nuclear activity. They say Israel is not comparable because it is not in the NPT while Iran is. Many developing nations say that this is precisely the problem.
The IAEA debate on "Israeli nuclear capabilities" was on the agenda at the behest of Arab nations who want watchdog chief Yukiya Amano to help implement an IAEA resolution urging Israel to enter the NPT and put its sites under agency oversight.
Amano said he would report on his progress in September.
2 comments:
Sacred Cow Sacred Israel
In other words do not talk about Israeli nuclear weapons, or even the NPT, but let’s focus on Islamic Iran, who has not got them, even North Korea is off the hook now, as a deal between China and the US was reached to keep quiet about its Asian neighbour on an exchange of the vote on Iranian sanction; the Russians on the other hand, secured the French warship, which at first the Americans objected to until they secured the vote. Immediately after the vote in New York, Putin flew to Paris on Friday 6 June for a payoff: The Mistral-class warship helicopter carrier and insisted on high-tech transfer to be thrown in as a bonus, otherwise the deal is useless if it only included a mass of metal, which the Russians have in abundance.
This is western hypocrisy and double standards. It is a wrong attitude which has been going on for so long with the tacit collusion of the west to keep the status quo over Arab politics, Arab wealth and wage a war by proxy against them, a good exercise for arms testing on the Ay-rabs which has been going on for so many years.
The choice is simple, either Israel disarms or the rest of the Arab world, if there is one? goes nuclear.
Oxford, Dr Hussein Ben Kirat
I agree with you 100%
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