Global Security Newswire

The International Atomic Energy Agency has not reconsidered its position on Israel's widely assumed nuclear weapons stockpile even though the IAEA governing board is tentatively set to consider the nation's nuclear capabilities at a June meeting, Haaretz reported today (see GSN, May 10).

Two Vienna-based diplomatic sources said a new policy from the U.N. nuclear watchdog's position on Israel's nuclear program was not in the offing and that there is no plan to "corner" Jerusalem on the matter. There is also no intention to make any connections between the nuclear activities of Israel and Iran, they said.

The officials were addressing reports that the board would for the first time consider Israel's nuclear operations. Jerusalem is already under the spotlight this month as Egypt leads a push at the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty review conference to make progress on a nuclear weapon-free zone for the Middle East (see GSN, May 6).

An IAEA spokeswoman said in a statement said that Israel's nuclear work has been considered before by the 35-nation Board of Governors. It has also been brought up for discussion in the IAEA General Assembly nearly every year since the early 1990s.

Israel is not a member state to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and does not allow agency checks on its Dimona nuclear reactor. Iran is a NPT member (see related GSN story, today).

Agency head Yukiya Amano was following the strictures established by the IAEA General Assembly in September in placing the Israeli nuclear item on the board's agenda, the spokeswoman said (Yossi Melman, Haaretz, May 11).

Israel's nuclear capabilities were on the IAEA Board of Governors' agenda for four years from 1988 to 1991, the Associated Press stated yesterday in a correction (Associated Press/Yahoo!News, May 10).

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said today that Jerusalem had U.S. backing in maintaining its decades-long stance of neither confirming or denying possession of a nuclear arsenal, Agence France-Presse reported.

In a radio interview, Barak said: "This is a good policy and there is no reason to change it. There is complete agreement with the United States on this question."

He added that "there is no risk" that the nuclear agency would receive permission to examine the Dimona site.

"There is no threat over the traditional agreements between Israel and the United States on this issue," he said. "I met President Barack Obama and other U.S. officials two weeks ago. All of them told me denuclearization efforts target Iran and North Korea" (Agence France-Presse I/Google News, May 11).

Meanwhile, an Israeli scientist who worked at the Dimona reactor said Jerusalem should allow international monitors to inspect the site, AFP reported.

Tel Aviv University chemistry professor Uzi Even, a former liberal lawmaker, also called on Jerusalem to abandon its policy of calculated nuclear ambiguity.

"The policy of nuclear ambiguity, by which we fool only ourselves and nobody else, is not good for us any more," Even said in a radio interview. "It was good, effective and successful for close to 40 years, but over 40 years many things changed and now I am telling you clearly, this policy is no longer in our interest" (Steve Weizman, Agence France-Presse II/Google News, May 10).