- Gideon Frank, director-general of the Atomic Energy Commission
in the Prime Minister's Office, told the International Atomic Energy Agency's
46th General Conference in Vienna yesterday that Israel opposes Iraq's
proposal to the conference agenda that it discuss "Israeli Nuclear
Capabilities and Threat."
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- Frank said that "many dangerous proliferation developments
in our region and in other regions have occurred in recent years, none
of which involve Israel. On the contrary: Israel has neither threatened
any of its neighbors nor has it acted in defiance of international commitments."
He added that the Iraqi proposal for the agenda lacks "factual justification"
and that "there is no need to single out Israel."
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- Adopting the Iraqi proposal for the agenda debate, said
Frank, "is bound to make it impossible for us to join any consensus
resolution concerning the 'Application of IAEA Safeguards in the Middle
East.' Once broken, the tradition of consensus resolution on the Middle
East will be very difficult to revive."
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- As in previous years, Frank's speech focused on Israeli
readiness to turn the Middle East into a Nuclear Weapons Free Zone (NWFZ)
"eventually, as an important complement to the overall peace in the
region." Israel is demanding that discussions on turning the Middle
East into a NWFZ take place in direct contacts between the states of the
region. Other Middle East countries, however, led by Egypt, are opposed
to Israel's condition for first peace and then denuclearization of the
region.
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- In a document presented by Israel in advance of the conference
to IAEA director-general, Dr. Mohammed El Baradei of Egypt, Israel proposes
that regional discussions about nuclear issues in the Middle East begin
with learning from the Tlatelolco Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear
Weapons in Latin America, and how Latin American countries agreed on verification
and tangible security for nuclear facilities and material.
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- El Baradei opened the conference with the announcement
that Cuba will be signing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. When it
does, only Israel, India, and Pakistan will remain outside the NPT. Arab
states want an Israeli ratification of the NPT as a condition for moving
toward confidence-building measures for regional security in the Middle
East. The working groups for these issues, which began operating in the
multinational tracks established by the Madrid Conference in 1991, have
not met since 1994.
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- In his report to the board of governors of the IAEA,
El Baradei said that as in the past, "due to the circumstances in
the region," his efforts had failed to bring nuclear facilities in
the region under inspection in preparation for making the region a NWFZ.
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- Last year, Frank said in his speech, a new threat emerged:
"Terrorists targeting civilians populations with non-discriminating
(including non-conventional) means. Israel can attest from its own experience
how devastating even conventional indiscriminate attacks can be. Moreover,
there is an alarming correlation between states currently seeking weapons
of mass destruction capabilities and states which are still sponsoring
terrorism. This state of affairs creates an urgent need to prevent deadly
capabilities from falling into the wrong hands by taking effective measures
to block the spread of weapons of mass destruction to terrorist groups
as well as to states supporting them."
-
- He said "a new balance" is needed between concerns
about nuclear proliferation and "further development and improvement
in the area of nuclear power production," saying nuclear energy would
"foster a future of sustainable energy, that will decrease the dependence
on fossil fuel sources."
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- That position contradicts the U.S. claims against the
Iranian investments in their nuclear facility in Bushar. Only a week ago,
a senior Pentagon official, briefing reporters, said Iran burns more waste
gas annually than the entire energy production capabilities of the planned
plant at Bushar. The official said that was evidence of Iran's military
ambitions for nuclear capability, and added that Syria's nuclear relationship
with Russia, which is helping build the Bushar plant, worries the Pentagon.
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- Iranian Vice President Reza Aghazedah, who heads Iran's
Atomic Energy Commission, told the conference that Iran first called for
a nuclear free zone in the Middle East in 1974, when the Shah was still
in power. "Israel, however, the only non-adherent party [to the NPT],
has so far not been cooperative in this regard." Israel's signature
on the NPT is "an essential preliminary step" toward the establishment
of a Middle East NWFZ, he said. "On the basis of its Islamic tenets,
beliefs, and human affinity, [Iran] has always condemned the possession
of weapons of mass destruction," said Aghazedah.
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