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Arab countries urge Israel to give up nuclear weapons

Israel Materials 22 November 2011 00:25 (UTC +04:00)
Representatives from existing nuclear-weapon-free zones on several continents made clear to the Arab countries and Israel in Vienna on Monday that they could overcome their conflicting demands for setting up such an agreement, dpa reported.
Arab countries urge Israel to give up nuclear weapons

Representatives from existing nuclear-weapon-free zones on several continents made clear to the Arab countries and Israel in Vienna on Monday that they could overcome their conflicting demands for setting up such an agreement, dpa reported.

At a meeting on a nuclear weapon-free Middle East, Arab countries urged Israel to give up its nuclear arms as a precondition for a regional nuclear weapons ban, participants said Monday.

"Israeli nuclear capabilities pose a grave and continuous threat to others in the region," said Syrian Ambassador Bassam Sabbagh, according to a participant of the forum hosted by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Israel's envoy David Danieli retorted that peace in the Middle East should come first and referred to the fact that several Arab countries do not recognize Israel as a state.

"Well, in South Africa there were (nuclear) weapons when we started the process in 1964," South African envoy Abdul Samad Minty told reporters, referring to the process that led to the African nuclear weapon-free zone.

Addressing Israel's concerns, a senior representative of the Latin American nuclear ban organization pointed out that there were considerable tensions in her region before a regional zone was set up in the 1960s.

At the Vienna forum, Israel and 17 Arab countries were represented at the Vienna meeting, which diplomats see as a possible preliminary step to further talks that are planned next year in Finland.

Iran was the only Middle Eastern country that stayed away.

It had announced its decision after the IAEA issued a report this month containing many indications that the country is developing a nuclear weapon, and because it views such conferences as useless as long as Israel keeps its arsenal.

Tehran's envoy Ali Asghar Soltanieh criticized that IAEA chief Yukiya Amano was focusing only on Iran.

"He is totally ignoring the concerns of the international community vis-a-vis Israel," he told dpa

Besides Israel's weapons and Iran's controversial activities, Iraq had a nuclear arms programme that was stopped after the Gulf War. Libya gave up its military atomic efforts in 2003.

Currently, the IAEA is trying to learn more about an alleged secret Syrian reactor that Israel bombed in 2007.

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