MOSCOW, 28 June 2004 — Israel should start talking seriously about ridding the Middle East of nuclear weapons, whether it admits to having them or not, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog said yesterday.
Speaking to reporters on an official visit to the Russian capital, Mohamed El-Baradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said this would be a main topic of his visit to Israel in early July.
“We need ... to rid the Middle East of all weapons of mass destruction,” he said.
“Israel agrees with that, but they say it has to be ... after peace agreements,” El-Baradei said. “My proposal is maybe we need to start to have a parallel dialogue on security at the same time when we’re working on the peace process.”
The Israeli Committee on Atomic Energy issued a statement in response saying that Israel would warmly welcome the IAEA chief during his visit.
“It (Israel) will listen closely to his views and respond with pertinent detail within the parameters of (Israel’s) well-known current policy,” it said in an apparent reference to Israel’s strategic ambiguity over its nuclear capabilities.
Under that policy, Israel neither admits nor denies having nuclear weapons. International experts estimate that Israel has from 100 to 200 nuclear weapons.
El-Baradei said a dialogue would help reduce widespread frustration in the Middle East “about what is seen to be a security imbalance”. He said talks on nuclear disarmament could stimulate peace efforts by building confidence in the region.
El-Baradei said he would not be lecturing the Israelis on whether or not they should acknowledge having atom bombs.
“Everybody takes it as a given that Israel has a nuclear capability, if not nuclear weapons. So whether they would like to come in the open, whether they maintain ... ambiguity, it’s for them to decide,” El-Baradei said.
He said he would like Israel, as well as everyone else in the Middle East, to open up its nuclear facilities to IAEA inspections.
Asked if he thought the Israelis would be open to such an idea, he said: “I don’t know. That’s the purpose of my visit.”
El-Baradei said it was unsustainable that some countries had nuclear weapons and others did not.
“As long as you continue to have countries dangling a cigarette from their mouth, you cannot tell everybody not to smoke with a high degree of credibility,” El-Baradei said.
Israel and the United States both accuse Iran of pursuing nuclear weapons, a charge that Tehran vehemently denies.
While Iraq and Libya are known to have unsuccessfully pursued atomic weapons, Israel is believed to be the only country in the region with the bomb.
Like India and Pakistan, which have atomic weapons, Israel has never signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
