IAEA Vote Labeled ‘Anti-Israel’

A vote expected to be taken Thursday or Friday at the International Atomic Energy Agency is being labeled anti-Israeli as it focuses on urging Israel to join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty and allow inspectors into its Dimona nuclear facility. The new resolution comes on the back of a 2009 report conducted by the IAEA which invited Israel to join the treaty, but did not make any assessment on the country’s nuclear capabilities nor did it ask for details of Israeli nuclear complexes. Arab states called the initial report “weak.”

The resolution was proposed by Egypt and is backed by other Arab states, but Israel asserts that rather than focusing on Israel the Agency should be focusing on those countries in the Middle East who are party to the treaty but have violated it: Iran, Iraq, Syria and Libya were named as countries more in need of investigation than Israel.
 
Israeli delegates to the IAEA are focusing their energies on convincing the so-called ‘non-aligned bloc’ of states to throw out the Arab initiative and bloc the resolution when it comes to voting later in the week.

Dr. Shaul Horev who heads the Israeli delegation said that the real threats to proliferation were not nuclear powers who were not party to the treaty, such as India, Pakistan and Israel, but those who were party to the treaty but in violation of it. He also expressed disappointment at Egypt for spearheading the resolution and reminded listeners that Egypt itself is yet to ratify the treaty.