UN URGES ISRAEL TO JOIN NUCLEAR TREATY
Washington, 4 Dul Hijjah 1434/9 October 2013 ( MINA ) – Delegates at the UN have discussed the issue of a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction, urging the Israeli regime to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Press TV reports.
The delegates at the United Nations headquarters in New York discussed on Tuesday the prospects of bringing about a Middle East free of WMDs.
During the meeting, Russian Foreign Ministry Security and Disarmament Department Director Mikhail Ulyanov voiced concern over Israel’s undeclared nuclear arms and said the regime “must be cooperative.”
Iran’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Gholam Hossein Dehqani also called for more strict measures toward Tel Aviv for the success of the UN drive for a WMD-free Mideast.
Israel is widely believed to be the only possessor of nuclear weapons in the Middle East, with estimated 200-400 nuclear warheads, Press TV quoted by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA) as reporting.
The Israeli regime rejects all regulatory international nuclear agreements, including the NPT, and refuses to allow its nuclear facilities to come under international regulatory inspections.
Israel is widely believed to possess nuclear weapons and to be the sixth country in the world to have developed them. It is one of four nuclear-armed countries not recognized as a Nuclear Weapons State by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the others being India, Pakistan and North Korea.
Israel maintains a policy known as “nuclear ambiguity” (also known as “nuclear opacity”).Israel has never officially admitted to having nuclear weapons, instead repeating over the years that it would not be the first country to “introduce” nuclear weapons to the Middle East, leaving ambiguity as to whether it means it will not create, will not disclose, will not make first use of the weapons or possibly some other interpretation of the phrase.
The “not be the first” formulation goes back to the Eshkol-Comer memorandum of understanding made between Israel and the United States on the 10th March 1965, which contained Israel’s written assurance for the first time that it would not be the first to introduce nuclear weapons in the Middle East. Israel has refused to sign the NPT despite international pressure to do so, and has stated that signing the NPT would be contrary to its national security interests.
Israel started investigating the nuclear field soon after its founding in 1948 and with French support secretly began building a nuclear reactor and reprocessing plant in the late 1950s. Israel is alleged to have developed a nuclear weapon in the late 1960s, but it is not publicly confirmed.
Mordechai Vanunu, a former Israeli nuclear technician, provided explicit details and photographs to the London Sunday Times of a nuclear weapons program in which he had been employed for nine years, “including equipment for extracting radioactive material for arms production and laboratory models of thermonuclear devices.
Estimates as to the size of the Israeli nuclear arsenal vary between 75 and 400 nuclear warheads, with most estimates at less than 200 warheads. It is estimated that the Israel nuclear deterrent force has the ability to deliver them by intermediate-range ballistic missile, intercontinental ballistic missile, aircraft, and submarine-launched cruise missile. ( T/P04/E1)
Mi’raj News Agency ( MINA )
