- VIENNA (Reuters) - The head
of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, Mohamed ElBaradei, goes to Israel on Tuesday
to try to persuade the Jewish state to open up its nuclear program, but
officials said Israel was not ready to scrap its atomic arsenal.
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- Under its policy of "strategic ambiguity,"
Israel neither admits nor denies having nuclear weapons. But it is assumed
to have up to 200 warheads, based on estimates of the amount of plutonium
Israeli reactors have produced.
-
- While no breakthroughs are expected, one Western diplomat
close to the IAEA said ElBaradei would meet senior Israeli officials, possibly
including Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
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- IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky said it would be partly
a "routine visit," but added that ElBaradei intended "to
promote the concept of a nuclear weapons-free zone in the Middle East"
-- clearly the central point of his talks.
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- Israel welcomes the idea of a Middle East free of weapons
of mass destruction but says disarmament has to come after peace has been
achieved in the region, which has been plagued by violence and conflict
for decades.
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- "We need ... to rid the Middle East of all weapons
of mass destruction," ElBaradei said recently. "Israel agrees
with that, but they say it has to be after peace agreements. 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."
-
- A diplomat close to the IAEA went even further: "No
Middle East peace process can work until we deal with the issue of weapons
of mass destruction."
-
- Until recently, diplomats in Vienna said ElBaradei might
try to persuade Israel to acknowledge it has nuclear weapons as a first
step toward disarmament. But Israeli officials and diplomats in Vienna
now say this will not happen.
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- THREATS TO ISRAEL MUST END FIRST
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- Asked if Israel was ready to abandon its strategic ambiguity
policy, a senior Israeli official told Reuters:
-
- "Absolutely not. The policy has served the country
well for decades against very hostile Middle East neighbors. Only when
that regional situation improves can we seriously consider a change of
policy."
-
- Britain's Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told BBC Radio
Four that a nuclear weapons-free Middle East would only be possible when
the Arab and Islamic countries' threat to Israel was gone.
-
- "Then we can put a great deal more pressure on Israel
to abandon its undoubted nuclear weapons program, which has been there
... for defensive purposes," Straw said in comments published on the
BBC Web site.
-
- Analysts said the timing of the trip was significant.
First of all, the Middle East peace process has stalled. Secondly, the
international community is increasingly suspicious of the atomic program
of Iran, a declared enemy of Israel, and other Middle East states have
demanded that the IAEA put pressure on Israel.
-
- Analysts cited fears in the Middle East that Israel has
been given special treatment by its ally the United States. Tehran insists
its nuclear program is peaceful but has been subjected to intense IAEA
scrutiny because of U.S.-led allegations that it is secretly pursuing the
bomb in breach of NPT obligations.
-
- "ElBaradei may feel it's necessary to take a more
balanced position and to focus some negative attention on Israel for remaining
outside the (Nuclear Non-Proliferation) Treaty and for not opening up its
nuclear facilities to inspections," said Valerie Lincy, an analyst
at the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control.
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- Israel, like Indian and Pakistan, has never signed the
NPT and is the only Middle Eastern state that is not a signatory.
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- Additional reporting by Dan Williams in Jerusalem
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