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Nuclear watchdog in Israel to press case
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-07-07 01:36
Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, flew into Israel
Tuesday for talks on ridding the Middle East of atomic weapons, whether the
Jewish state admits to having them or not.
U.N. nuclear
watchdog head Mohamed ElBaradei hopes to get Israel to begin talks on
ridding the Middle East of nuclear weapons, whether it admits to having
them or not, when he flies to the Jewish state on July 6, 2004. ElBaradei
gestures prior to a closed-door meeting of the IAEA 35-nation Board of
Governors, in Vienna, June 16.
[Reuters] |
Under its policy of "strategic
ambiguity," Israel neither admits nor denies having nuclear arms. But
international experts believe Israel has from 100 to 200 warheads, based on
estimates of the amount of plutonium its reactors have produced.
ElBaradei had wanted to get the Israelis to abandon their policy of
ambiguity, Western diplomats said. But Israel says this is impossible at present
given the continued hostility of the neighboring Arab world and Iran.
"There are no signs of a policy change in Israel," said a diplomat close to
the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which ElBaradei heads.
Nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu, freed in April after an 18-year jail
term for spilling Israel's nuclear secrets, urged ElBaradei to press for access
to the reactor at the heart of the nuclear program.
But the IAEA director, starting a three-day visit that is his first to Israel
since 1998, said only that he had come for consultations "on policy issues." His
spokesman Mark Gwozdecky said he had no specific goals in his talks with the
Israelis.
"He realizes that the objectives are ambitious and are not going to be
achieved overnight. But he is willing to invest the time necessary to make
progress," Gwozdecky told Reuters.
The diplomat, who declined to be identified, said ElBaradei would not push
Israel to abandon its ambiguity, which it has kept up for decades for fear of
sparking a regional arms race.
NO VISIT TO KEY REACTOR
Israel is the only Middle East country not to have signed the nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). This means it does not have to open up its
nuclear program to U.N. inspectors.
During his visit, ElBaradei will tour Israel's atomic facilities -- except
the reactor in the desert town of Dimona that independent experts believe has
produced plutonium.
A top Israeli analyst said hostility to Israel in the Middle East remained a
reason not to sign the NPT.
"The threat to Israel has not diminished much in the past five decades and
hatred of Israel in the Arab and Muslim worlds remains intense," Gerald
Steinberg, a fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, wrote.
Israel and the United States accuse Iran of pursuing nuclear weapons, a
charge Tehran denies. Libya and pre-war Iraq are also known to have tried
unsuccessfully to build up atomic arsenals.
In an editorial in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Steinberg said focusing
some attention on Israel might undercut critics who accuse the IAEA of ignoring
Israel's atomic bombs while putting undue pressure on Iran.
"This visit will make it politically easier for the Egyptian-born diplomat to
justify pressure on Iran," he wrote.
Former nuclear technician Vanunu, who took 60 pictures inside the Dimona
reactor and gave them to Britain's Sunday Times newspaper in 1986, urged
ElBaradei to insist on visiting the plant.
"The Israeli government should change its policy and open the reactor," he
said. "They should stop cheating the world, stop cheating Israeli citizens and
stop cheating the Arab citizens."
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