(AFP) It is against Israel's interests to join a global anti-nuclear arms treaty and the UN atomic watchdog is overstepping its mandate in demanding it do so, Israel's Atomic Energy Commission chief Shaul Horev told the International Atomic Energy Agency annual conference in Vienna on Tuesday. "Israel is not the only member state...that has exercised its sovereign right not to accede to the NPT due to its national security considerations, yet Israel is the only state that has been singled out, and is called upon to take a decision which is against its best national interests," he said. "Indeed, the advancement of states' accessions to international treaties does not fall within the mandate of the (IAEA)." Horev said a resolution tabled by the Arab states calling on Israel to foreswear nuclear weapons and sign up to the NPT was part of a "political campaign to defame the State of Israel." "Moreover, this resolution...ignores the adverse reality in the Middle East." "The serious threat to the NPT and the non-proliferation regime is posed from within by those states that pursue nuclear weapons under the cover of their NPT membership."
2010-09-22 09:56:16Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive