Arabs drop call for Israel nuke prog. oversight: Report

By Anees Bargouthi

JERUSALEM

Arab states, led by Egypt, will refrain from seeking a resolution demanding oversight of Israel’s nuclear program at an upcoming general conference of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Israeli daily Haaretz reported Thursday.

According to the newspaper, a "secret telegram" sent by Tamar Rahamimoff-Honig, head of the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s arms control department, to several Israeli diplomats stated that the Cairo-based Arab League had decided not to call for a vote at the conference -- slated for September -- on a resolution demanding oversight of Israel’s nuclear program.

"The telegram, however, warned diplomats that the [Arab League] decision could change at short notice and that they should be prepared to counter such a resolution [at the IAEA]," the newspaper quoted one Israeli diplomat privy to the telegram’s contents as saying.

According to Haaretz, some Israeli diplomats attribute the Arab about-face to two factors.

"The first is the fact that the Arab states have failed to gain a majority for the resolution since 1987," the newspaper reported.

"The second is the recent rapprochement between Israel and Egypt, [the latter of] which has always been the main country spearheading the issue," it added.

According to the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), Israel has produced 115 nuclear warheads since it first began making them in 1963.

The Jewish state has produced some 660 kilograms of plutonium within the last 52 years at its Dimona nuclear reactor in the southern Negev Desert, according to ISIS estimates.