Haaretz
Seotember 24, 2006
Egypt criticised Western powers on
Saturday for blocking efforts to declare Israel's reputed nuclear arsenal
a threat.
The United States and other Western states combined on
Friday to stifle a resolution at the U.N.'s nuclear agency, the IAEA,
demanding Israel use atomic energy only for peaceful purposes and help set
up a Middle East nuclear arms-free zone.
The gathering voted in
favour of a milder resolution, also initiated by Arab states, "affirming
the urgent need for all states in the Middle East to accept full-scope
IAEA safeguards on all their nuclear activities".
In a news release
on Saturday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit slammed what he
described as double standards and discriminatory policies on the part of
Western countries.
"It is unacceptable that these countries
continue to ignore the danger posed by the Israeli nuclear threat to
stability and security in the Middle East," he said.
Aboul Gheit
called on Israel to accede to the Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT),
and on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to subject Israel's
nuclear energy programme to safeguards and checks.
Aboul Gheit said
these countries should express the same level of interest in the Israeli
nuclear threat as they do in other non-proliferation cases, and described
Israel's nuclear programme as a "direct challenge" to the NPT
regime.
"For developing and Arab countries to comprehend the
concern Western powers are expressing over the Iranian nuclear issue,
these Western powers have to convince everyone that they adhere to all
that is lawful, and not pick sides," Aboul Gheit said.
Israel
neither admits nor denies having atomic weapons under a policy of
"strategic ambiguity", but most experts believe it has about 200 nuclear
warheads.
Last year, Israeli police filed charges against nuclear
whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu for telling Western media that Israel
assembled hydrogen and and neutron bombs at its Dimona nuclear reactor.
Vanunu is currently banned from traveling.