Haaretz
Elul 28, 5766
Arab states on Wednesday relaunched a
campaign to have the United Nations nuclear watchdog condemn Israel's
reputed atomic arsenal.
Israel again rebuffed two resolutions in
what has become an annual Arab effort to get the International Atomic
Energy Agency to press it to join the Non-Proliferation Treaty
arms-control pact and help set up a nuclear weapons-free zone in the
Middle East.
This year's campaign was prompted by the security
threats posed by the Israel Defense Forces' operation in Lebanon this past
summer, Ibrahim Othman, Syria's atomic energy commission chief
said.
"This criminal aggression against Lebanon and Palestine must
prompt us today to look at these two [resolutions] seriously, credibly,"
Othman said in a speech to the IAEA gathering in Vienna.
"The fact
[is] Israel is the only country [in the Middle East] with nuclear weapons,
and refusing to adhere to the NPT is a matter that undermines peace and
security in our area," he said.
Led by Syria, fifteen Arab states
including Egypt and Jordan, the only ones with diplomatic links to Israel,
urged the 141 IAEA member nations to press Israel in a motion entitled
"Israeli nuclear capabilities and threat."
After Egyptian and
Syrian envoys to the IAEA's annual meeting said Israel's position bred
instability, Israel said such a regional zone was a frivolous idea so long
as some neighbors continued not to recognize it.
Israel neither
admits nor denies having nuclear weapons and has never signed up to the
40-year-old NPT, but many experts believe it has about 200 atomic
bombs.
United States and European Union opposition has thwarted
such symbolic moves against Israel at the IAEA in the past.
Unlike
recent years, when such statements stalled in committee, the Arab states
put a resolution on the plenary agenda this time, and diplomats pointed to
heightened resentment for Israel following the Lebanon war.
A
decision on the resolution was expected on Friday.
Egypt joined the Arab states' call on the
same day that the the son of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, seen by
many as his potential successor, urged the nation to develop a nuclear
program to generate energy.
Ramzy Ezzeldin Ramzy, Cairo's
ambassador to the IAEA, said: "The continued imbalance in the Middle East
threatens the region and provides legitimacy to an arms race in the
region, and Egypt cannot accept this."
Gideon Frank, Israel's
atomic energy commission director, said both motions were unwarranted and
unrealistic.
He cited "alarming nuclear and missile proliferation
developments" in an allusion to Iran, whose leaders openly call for
Israel's elimination, and "sustained efforts by certain leaders in the
region to deny the very legitimacy" of Israel.
"Frank said in
regards to a nuclear weapons-free zone that "Such a noble cause cannot be
advanced out of context, [but only with] a fundamental transformation of
the regional political-strategic climate through a gradual process of
building trust and reconciliation, followed by more modest arms-control
measures."