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IAEA report lacks serious probe of Israeli nukes: German daily

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Berlin, Sept 7, IRNA -- The latest report of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Israel's nuclear program lacks any real substance as a result of a half-hearted investigation by IAEA chief Yukiya Amano, the daily newspaper junge welt reported Tuesday.

The UN nuclear watchdog has 'no interest' to investigate Israel's nuclear weapons arsenal as shown by the release of a 'lackluster three-page report' on Tel Aviv's nuclear program by Amano, the paper said.

The report which will be discussed by the IAEA General Assembly later this month in Vienna, did not include any facts or assessments, it added.

The daily pointed to western efforts, headed by the US, to remove the issue of Israel's nuclear weapons program from the daily agenda of the IAEA.

The report shows that Israel has failed to undertake any practical steps to implement an earlier IAEA resolution which called on the Jewish state to join the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and to place its nuclear facilities under the control of the UN nuclear agency, junge welt said.

The IAEA report also acknowledged that it had 'no information on Israel's atomic potential' and was not even capable of saying how many nuclear facilities were in that country, the daily added.

The paper said based on the report, the IAEA did not even make an attempt to formally request information on Israel's atomic program.

Israel's nuclear project has also been thorny for its closest allies, the United States and Germany since other countries, especially Muslim and non-aligned ones, accuse the West of hypocrisy in tolerating Israel's atomic buildup while condemning Iran for its nuclear activities which is under the full IAEA control.

In one of the world's worst-kept secrets, Israel has become a nuclear giant.

It is estimated to have hundreds of atomic weapons, an arsenal that ranks it fifth among nuclear powers and dwarfs the programs of India, Pakistan and North Korea.

Though warning of the danger from other countries, Israel is the only nation that has ever brought the Mideast to the brink of nuclear war.

Yet it has maintained a policy of 'deliberate ambiguity' about its own nuclear capabilities even as it bombed an Iraqi reactor in 1981 and pressured other countries to disarm.

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Islamic Republic News Agency/IRNA NewsCode: 263966