Arabs seek to shift IAEA focus to Israeli nuclear activities 
December 3, 2008
UAE Daily News
Original Source: http://www.uaedailynews.com/middleeast/4309.html?print

VIENNA, Dec 4 -- The Arab members of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) are struggling to shift the focus of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) from the Syrian nuclear program to the Israeli one, diplomats here said on Thursday.

The Arab move, backed by NAM, aims to counter the pressures being applied by the western countries on the board of governors of the U.N. nuclear watchdog to turn the alleged Syrian nuclear activities into a permanent agenda item.

The IAEA handling of the Iranian and Syrian nuclear programs must be part of the a move comprehensive effort to rid the Middle East off the nuclear weapons with Israel being involved, diplomats said in statements to KUNA.

The delegates of the Arab countries to the IAEA board meeting which came to a close on Friday wondered how Israel could raise hell at the Syrian and Iranian nuclear programs while it refuses to join the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and puts in jeopardy the entire safeguard system of the nuclear watchdog.

In their statements to the meeting the Arab delegates criticized the international community notably the IAEA for adopting unjustifiable double standards while enforcing the NPT in the Middle East and covering up the nuclear capabilities of Israel.

U.S. Ambassador to the IAEA Gregory L. Schulte told the meeting on Friday that Syria should distance itself from Iran follow the Libyan example in revealing all activities at its nuclear sites.

IAEA agreed on Wednesday, November 26, to provide Syria with technical assistance necessary for its nuclear program for power generation, a step criticized by the US and other western members of the IAEA board.

The Arab countries are strongly opposed to the one-sided stance of the western countries on the Israeli military nuclear capabilities and Israel's stated refusal to join the NPT, the diplomats underscored.

On Monday, the IAEA adopted the initiative of Arab League member states to put the Israeli's nuclear activities under scrutiny which ired Israel.

The move backed by Iran and other NAM members put Israel's nuclear capabilities on the agenda of the UN body's annual meetings. Iranian envoy Ali Asghar Soltanieh condemned the shameful silence of Israel's Western allies about the nuclear exclusivity of the Jewish state. Soltanieh called on the UN agency to suspend Israel's membership for its failure to join the NPT and its air strikes against nuclear facilities in Arab countries. He recalled the Israeli attacks against the Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981 and the Syrian Al-Kiber military facility in September, 2007.

In its report on the probe into the nature of Al-Kiber facility issued in late November, the IAEA did not exclude the possibility that the facility was a non-nuclear one.

At the end of the meeting of its board of governors, the UN agency called on Syria to allow IAEA inspectors to visit the bombed site in order to complete the probe.