By Abdelwaheb El Gueyed
VIENNA, Sept 16 (KUNA) -- Despite the US bids to dissuade the Arab group of states in Vienna from raising the issue of Israel's nuclear capabilities at the Annual Conference of the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) under the pretexts of backing the Middle East peace efforts, the group announced Thursday commitment to its "principled stand." IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano opened a Board of Governors heated debate earlier today over his report on the risks posed by Israel's atomic arsenal to the Middle East region.
Speaking to KUNA here ahead of the meeting, Representative of the Arab League of States Ambassador Michael Wahba affirmed the existence of pressures being applied on the Arab countries to back down on their draft regarding Israel.
"However, the Arab countries stick to their right to re-raise a draft resolution on the issue during the 54th session of the IAEA's General Conference, due to kick off next week," Wahba affirmed.
"The Arab group, backed by several IAEA member countries, stands on firm ground in lobbying for its bid. Secretary General of the Arab League Amr Moussa visited Vienna in July when he met representatives of several regional groups to discuss Israel's nuclear arsenal," he noted.
Asked whether the draft could undermine the efforts to convince Israeli of taking part in the Middle East denuclearization conference, due in 2012, Wahba said: "Our principled stand is based on the results of the 2010 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), held in May at UN Headquarters in New York and the Nuclear Security Summit, held in Washington on April 12 and 13, 2010, "It's of crucial importance for the international community to focus on Israel's nuclear capabilities and list them on the agenda of the 54th IAEA Annual Conference because the nuclear facilities of Israel are not subject to any international inspection," he argued. Meanwhile, head of the Arab group Ambassador Mohammad Hassan Al-Amin, of Sudan, said he sent a letter to Amano urging the latter to distribute the draft resolution among the delegates of the IAEA member states and add the draft to the agenda of the General Conference.
"The group strongly believes that Israel must be forced to join the NPT and put its nuclear facilities under IAEA inspection on equal footing with other Middle East countries," Al-Amin added.
On his part, US Ambassador to the IAEA Glyn Davies said, in similar statements to KUNA, that the western efforts to convince the Arab countries of backing down on the draft failed to make any progress.
The Arab states have already presented the draft to Amano as a prelude to a voting on it at the conference on Monday, Davies noted.
The draft urges Israel, the only nuclear power which failed to join the NPT, to sign the treaty without delay and open its nuclear reactors to international inspection. (end) amg.gb KUNA 161852 Sep 10NNNN