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Nuclear watchdog in Israel to press case
Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, flew into Israel Tuesday for talks on ridding the Middle East of atomic weapons, whether the Jewish state admits to having them or not.
Under its policy of "strategic ambiguity," Israel neither admits nor denies having nuclear arms. But international experts believe Israel has from 100 to 200 warheads, based on estimates of the amount of plutonium its reactors have produced.
ElBaradei had wanted to get the Israelis to abandon their policy of ambiguity, Western diplomats said. But Israel says this is impossible at present given the continued hostility of the neighboring Arab world and Iran.
"There are no signs of a policy change in Israel," said a diplomat close to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which ElBaradei heads.
Nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu, freed in April after an 18-year jail term for spilling Israel's nuclear secrets, urged ElBaradei to press for access to the reactor at the heart of the nuclear program.
But the IAEA director, starting a three-day visit that is his first to Israel since 1998, said only that he had come for consultations "on policy issues." His spokesman Mark Gwozdecky said he had no specific goals in his talks with the Israelis.
"He realizes that the objectives are ambitious and are not going to be achieved overnight. But he is willing to invest the time necessary to make progress," Gwozdecky told Reuters.
The diplomat, who declined to be identified, said ElBaradei would not push Israel to abandon its ambiguity, which it has kept up for decades for fear of sparking a regional arms race.
NO VISIT TO KEY REACTOR
Israel is the only Middle East country not to have signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). This means it does not have to open up its nuclear program to U.N. inspectors.
During his visit, ElBaradei will tour Israel's atomic facilities -- except the reactor in the desert town of Dimona that independent experts believe has produced plutonium.
A top Israeli analyst said hostility to Israel in the Middle East remained a reason not to sign the NPT.
"The threat to Israel has not diminished much in the past five decades and hatred of Israel in the Arab and Muslim worlds remains intense," Gerald Steinberg, a fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, wrote.
Israel and the United States accuse Iran of pursuing nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran denies. Libya and pre-war Iraq are also known to have tried unsuccessfully to build up atomic arsenals.
In an editorial in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Steinberg said focusing some attention on Israel might undercut critics who accuse the IAEA of ignoring Israel's atomic bombs while putting undue pressure on Iran.
"This visit will make it politically easier for the Egyptian-born diplomat to justify pressure on Iran," he wrote.
Former nuclear technician Vanunu, who took 60 pictures inside the Dimona reactor and gave them to Britain's Sunday Times newspaper in 1986, urged ElBaradei to insist on visiting the plant.
"The Israeli government should change its policy and open the reactor," he said. "They should stop cheating the world, stop cheating Israeli citizens and stop cheating the Arab citizens." |
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