israel tries to divert el baradei

Israel tells UN's ElBaradei Iran wants nuclear arms
07 Jul 2004 11:49:13 GMT

By Louis Charbonneau

TEL AVIV, July 7 (Reuters) - Israel, pressed to consider a nuclear weapons-free Middle East, stressed its fear that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons and might use them against it, the visiting head of the UN nuclear watchdog said on Wednesday.

"They (the Israelis) were expressing concern about Iran," International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei told reporters after meeting Israel's nuclear energy commission director, other officials and a former head of the Mossad secret service.

ElBaradei is on a three-day visit to the Jewish state, which refuses to admit or deny having nuclear weapons under a policy of "strategic ambiguity". International experts believe it has 100-200 warheads, based on estimates of the amount of plutonium its reactors have produced.

ElBaradei said his attempts to promote the idea of a nuclear weapons-free zone in the Middle East ran up against Israeli concern about Iran's nuclear ambitions and about the hostility to Israel of some states in the region.

"The majority of the countries in the Middle East feel that there is this security imbalance in the Middle East, this double standard," ElBaradei said of the assumption that Israel has atomic weapons and other Middle East states do not.

"Here the Israelis are saying you cannot even discuss that because we cannot lower our security threshold before we have a comprehensive peace where we are fully accepted as part and parcel of the region," he said.

ElBaradei said he was trying to find a compromise that would enable the Israelis and their Arab and Muslim neighbours to work out a realistic security arrangement that did not include the bomb as part of any peace process.

Iran, which -- unlike Israel -- has signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), says it wants nuclear technology solely for the peaceful generation of electricity.

But Washington and Israel accuse Tehran of concealing research that could be related to nuclear arms for nearly two decades until last year.

"JURY IS OUT" ON IRAN

ElBaradei has said repeatedly that "the jury is still out" on whether Iran is seeking the bomb.

Uzi Arad, director of Israel's Institute of Policy and Strategy and an ex-senior Mossad official, disagreed, saying it was time the IAEA stated openly that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons.

"Anyone who suggests differently is under illusions," Arad told reporters. "At which point will the IAEA state the obvious (about Iran)?"

ElBaradei will meet Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom on Thursday and analysts said Iran was likely to come up in those talks.

The IAEA has been investigating Iran's nuclear programme since August 2002, when a group of Iranian exiles reported that Tehran was hiding a massive underground enrichment plant and other facilities from U.N. inspectors.

Israel, like India and Pakistan, has not signed the NPT and therefore does not have to open up its nuclear programme to U.N. inspectors.

ElBaradei said he hoped to bring Israel into the NPT but this would take time, given Israeli fears about hostile nearby states. He noted Israel has been under pressure to disclose its nuclear activities for over 30 years.

"I have no illusion that things could happen overnight, but what I believe is that the earlier we start a security dialogue the better," ElBaradei said. "Building security in this troubled area will take time."