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IAEA pressure on Israel to admit is nukes

UN watchdog wants Israel to join NPT, Palestine Note, 5 May 2010, IAEA seeks international input on persuading Israel to join treaty Washington – The UN’s nuclear watchdog is seeking international support in persuading Israel to join the Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) in a step that will likely put pressure on Israel to publicly confirm the existence of its unacknowledged nuclear arsenal, The Associated Press reported Wednesday.

AP said that IAEA chief Yukiya Amano asked foreign ministers of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s 151 member states in a letter to share views on how to implement a resolution demanding that Israel accede to the Nonproliferation Treaty and open its nuclear facilities open to IAEA oversight.Israel, India, and Pakistan are the only three states in the world that have not signed the NPT, a treaty first introduced in 1970.The report came amid calls for a nuclear-free Middle East at an international conference evaluating the implementation of the NPT at UN headquarters in New York.Israel is the region’s only nuclear power, although it has never confirmed or denied the existence of its arsenal under a longstanding policy of so-called “nuclear ambiguity.”The five permanent members on the UN Security Council – the United States, Britain, Russia, France and China – endorsed the call for a ban.

UN watchdog wants Israel to join NPT – Top News

May 6, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Israel, politics international | antinuclear, nuclear secrecy, nuclear weapons