Israel, U.S. at odds over nuclear treaty

[sonz]

Israel and the United States are at odds over a U.S.-drafted treaty that would prohibit the production of plutonium or enriched uranium for use in nuclear weapons, Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported.

The draft treaty, presented yesterday by the U.S. to the UN Disarmament Commission in Geneva, calls for the suspension of existing stocks of fissionable materials worldwide in order to curb their expansion.

Although the U.S. assured Israel that the treaty wouldn’t affect it, the Jewish state fears that it could lead to more international pressure over its nuclear program.

As a result, Israeli officials tried to dissuade their American counterparts from submitting the draft for discussion. According to Haaretz, the chairman and deputy chairman of Israel’s Atomic Energy Commission, Gideon Frank and Eli Levita, were in Washington last week where they raised the issue with top U.S. officials.

Israel, widely believed to be the only nuclear armed state in the Middle East, maintains a policy of ambiguity regarding its nuclear program, neither admitting nor denying that it does possess atomic arms.

The U.S. “nuclear-freeze” treaty was submitted for discussion in the UN Disarmament Commission eight years ago, but it was met with fierce Israeli opposition. Then Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told former U.S. President Bill Clinton at the time that Israel would never sign such a treaty “for security reasons”.

In response, Clinton told Netanyahu that Washington would consult with Israel over any arms-control initiative that could affect it.

The new U.S. draft is less strict than previous proposals. It would require signatories to pledge not to produce plutonium or enriched uranium for use in nuclear weapons, but wouldn’t enforce any control or verification mechanism. Moreover, it won’t cover stocks of fissile material and thus does not propose banning use of fissile material produced before the proposed treaty eventually enters into force.

Egypt, which has been leading an international campaign against Israel's nuclear program, urged the U.S. to change the treaty and make it cover preexisting stocks and impose a verification mechanism.

Even if the draft is passed, the treaty wouldn’t be able to curb Iran’s nuclear program because Tehran insists that its uranium enrichment program is strictly aimed at the peaceful generation of electricity, correspondents say.

Haaretz also reported that the U.S. rejected an Israeli request to upgrade its civilian nuclear program.

Israel’s efforts to purchase civilian nuclear technology, including spare parts, are very limited because it hasn’t signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). However, the U.S. signed an agreement to sell civilian nuclear technology to India, which also isn’t a signatory to the NPT.

* Israel carried out nuclear test in 1979

Meanwhile, a newly disclosed U.S. document showed that Israel and South Africa carried out a nuclear test on an offshore platform in the northern Antarctic in 1979, the Israeli Yediot Aharonot newspaper reported.

The U.S. document, prepared for the White House in 1979, says a mystery explosion detected on September 22, 1979 by a U.S. satellite was a nuclear test.

It also showed that Israel and South Africa, then under apartheid rule, were cooperating on military issues, including nuclear research.

The U.S. intelligence services reported in 1990 that South Africa was working on a nuclear weapons program and estimated that Israel possessed about 200 nuclear warheads.

South Africa later dismantled its nuclear weapons program under UN supervision.

Aljazeera

[Woodrow]

Does anybody know how to spell: "DOUBLE STANDARD"