US protests IAEA debate on Israel

The US has protested a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that voices concern over Israel’s clandestine nuclear program and its potential capabilities.

“Israel has fully cooperated with the IAEA,” State Department spokesman Philip Crowley claimed on Wednesday.

He further noted that Washington believed the agency was not the forum to discuss Israel’s accession to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

“We believe there is really no basis for a debate at the IAEA,” the spokesman insisted.

Crowley said Israeli nuclear arsenals had been discussed at the NPT Review Conference held in New York earlier in the year and that a meeting on a nuclear-free Middle East was set for 2012.

IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano traveled to al-Quds (Jerusalem) in August to call on the Israeli regime to sign the treaty.

In his report to the IAEA board of governors on Friday, Amano said he had conveyed Tel Aviv the agency’s “concern about the Israeli nuclear capabilities and invited Israel to consider acceding to the NPT and placing all its nuclear facilities under comprehensive IAEA safeguards.”

Crowley said that in Washington’s view, such an IAEA step was unnecessary since it could “interrupt the progress that we think is possible now that we’re back at direct negotiations” between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

Crowley’s remarks seem contradictory to earlier claims by Washington that it is in agreement with the principles of accession of all countries in the NPT and a nuclear-free Middle East.

On Tuesday, the Egyptian government, on behalf of the Non-Alignment Movement member states, demanded Amano to hand in an exhaustive report on Israel’s nuclear arsenals.

The Tel Aviv regime has been refusing to confirm or deny possessing nuclear weapons while it is widely believed that it has over 200 nuclear warheads.

Having endorsed Israel’s policy of “nuclear ambiguity” over the past 40 years, the US warned the Arab states on Saturday against renewing efforts to focus attention on Israel at an upcoming IAEA meeting.