Arabs fail to win Israel nuclear denunciation
AFP
Date: 09-30-05
VIENNA (AFP) - The UN atomic watchdog unanimously called for a nuclear-weapons-free zone (NWFZ) in the Middle East but rejected an Arab call to denounce Israel as a nuclear threat.
Israel welcomed the idea of such a zone but said it advocates "achieving regional peace and security not arms control per se," in comments by Israeli atomic energy chief Gideon Frank.
A general conference of the 139-nation International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) also unanimously passed a resolution welcoming North Korea's agreement to abandon nuclear weapons and called upon Pyongyang to let IAEA inspectors back into the country.
Egyptian ambassador Ramzy Ezzeldin Ramzy told the IAEA conference that the resolution on a NWFZ invites Israel, believed to be the only nuclear weapons state in the Middle East, "to join the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and to accept that its various facilities be subject to the IAEA safeguards system."
Israel has not signed the NPT and neither confirms nor denies reports that it has some 200 atom bombs.
Jordanian ambassador Shebab Madi said: "Unfortunately this resolution will not be sufficient to ensure... the denuclearization of this region. A policy of double standards will continue throughout the world."
Frank said that while Israel felt a NWFZ "could eventually serve as a complement to overall efforts to peace and security in the region" the Jewish state wanted a general peace agreement first in the Middle East.
Frank said Israeli actions, such as its withdrawal from Gaza, had created a "window of opportunity to advancing peace and security in the region."
Confidence-building, as in creating a nuclear-weapons-free zone, "is a long and enduring process," Frank said.
The IAEA conference rejected discussion of "Israeli nuclear capabilities and threat," as proposed in a resolution by Oman, despite a strong push for this by 15 Arab states plus Palestine.
The agenda item was put off until next year as part of a compromise that has taken place annually since 1998 in which Arab states drop this agenda request in order to win Israeli participation in a consensus on the call for a NWFZ.
Emotions were high, however, this year after the IAEA's 35-nation board of governors last week found Iran guilty of violating the NPT and threatened to take Tehran to the UN Security Council, which could impose trade sanctions.
Arab states resent the fact that the IAEA is cracking down on Iran for what the United States charges is a covert nuclear weapons program while US ally Israel avoids such scrutiny.
The North Korea resolution welcomed the six-party agreement September 19 in Beijing "which accomplished positive progress by taking a first step toward the goal of the verifiable denuclearization of the Korean peninsula in a peaceful manner."
It was a compromise between the United States and China, which are both involved in the six-party talks and had clashed over mentioning a promise to supply Pyongyang with a light-water nuclear reactor in order to generate nuclear power for peaceful purposes, diplomats said.
China had wanted this mentioned, and since it was not, refrained from co-sponsoring the resolution, diplomats said.
Chinese governor Zhang Huazhu warned that "future talks and negotiations will be more complex and difficult."
The United States says that Pyongyang must first disarm, before getting incentive bonuses, such as a reactor.
US ambassador Gregory Schulte told the conference: "The United States believes that it is imperative to move rapidly on an agreement to implement the goals outlined in the joint statement."
"US officials wanted a neutral text in Vienna that would not interfere with the six-party talks in Asia," said a diplomat close to what were two days of painstaking back-door talks at the IAEA over the resolution on North Korea.
North Korea triggered a nuclear crisis in October 2002 after the United States accused it of running a secret uranium-enrichment program.
North Korea denied the claims, but responded by throwing out IAEA inspectors and withdrawing from the NPT, which authorizes the IAEA monitoring.
In February this year North Korea admitted having built nuclear weapons.
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