AFP
Israel on agenda for UN nuclear watchdog general conference
Date: Mon, Sep 20, 2004
VIENNA (AFP) - The UN nuclear watchdog opens its annual general conference that sets overall goals for the atomic monitoring body but is also a setting for Arab countries to attack Israel for allegedly possessing nuclear weapons.
Mark Gwozdecky, spokesman for the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency said the week-long conference mainly endorses decisions made by the IAEA's executive arm, the 35-nation board of governors, which last week called on Iran to fully suspend uranium enrichment and submit to a review in November of its alleged nuclear weapons program.
Still, the discussion on Israel should be heated.
A Western diplomat close to the IAEA said Middle Eastern states have in the past used the conference as a forum to vent their frustration over Iran being attacked for alleged nuclear capabilities while the IAEA does not act against Israel, which is believed to have developed nuclear weapons and has not signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
The 137-country IAEA is at its conference to consider "Israeli nuclear capabilities and threat," according to the agenda.
A resolution may be introduced but the Western diplomat said this would be then withdrawn in a "procedural game where Arabic countries raise yet again the question" of why Israel has not signed the NPT, the safeguards agreement the IAEA verifies.
He said such resolutions have in the past been "obscure and hard to decipher but make a point by having the word Israel in them."
Gwozdecky said the conference would review the full range of IAEA activities and "lay out a work plan for the agency for the year to come."
The IAEA wants its inspectors to return to North Korea (news - web sites), from where they were expelled in January 2003 as it angrily withdrew from the NPT amid US charges it is developing nuclear weapons.
Gwozdecky said he did not expect recent revelations that South Korea (news - web sites) performed undeclared uranium enrichment, which the IAEA is investigating, to impact greatly on the North Korea debate at the conference.
Besides these verification activities, the IAEA carries out cooperation programs to help people use nuclear technology, such as getting radiation therapy machines to developing countries to make cancer treatments easier.
The third pillar of its activity is promoting nuclear safety. As part of this, it has focused since the terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001 on "helping countries identify their vulnerabilities" in nuclear security, Gwozdecky said.
This includes protecting against terrorists getting radioactive materials to use in so-called dirty bombs. These are conventional bombs laced with radioactive materials and designed to contaminate wide areas.
The IAEA helped put on a conference over the weekend in Vienna co-hosted by US Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham (news - web sites) and Russian atomic chief Alexander Rumyantsev on a global initiative to keep highly radioactive materials out of the reach of terrorists.
In May, Abraham had announced that the United States was giving 450 million dollars (370 million euros) to the initiative, which tries to prevent nuclear materials stored around the world from getting to terrorists who could use them to make a dirty bomb or even a full atomic device.
SOURCE
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