Western nations against the topic Arab nations are expected to use a UN atomic watchdog meeting next week to draw attention to Israel's policy of nuclear ambiguity and urge it to join the Non-Proliferation Treaty. The discussion comes after a month-long UN conference in New York to review the NPT which put pressure on Israel and at a time of wider international scrutiny of the Jewish state after its raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla. Although no conclusion is expected, it will be the first time the International Atomic Energy Agency's board of governors has discussed the topic since 1991. On the agenda at the request of Arab nations, the discussion on “Israeli nuclear capabilities” could be scrapped if enough of the IAEA's 35 governing member states oppose it but diplomats say this is unlikely. Arab nations want IAEA chief Yukiya Amano to present countries' views on how to implement an IAEA resolution which says Israel should put all its atomic sites under inspection and urges it to join the NPT. Amano asked IAEA member states earlier this year for their views on the resolution. Diplomats say it is too soon for him to present his report at the meeting and that he will do this later in the year. “What is exactly the the purpose of it now other than generating a momentum and possibly some pressure in the run up to the next IAEA general conference in September?” a European diplomat said. “It of course provides an opportunity for talk, and that certainly will happen.” Nuclear ambiguity Developing nation votes helped push through the Israel resolution last September, the first time in 18 years of attempts by Arab countries at the IAEA's annual assembly. Israel deplored the measure. It is the only country that has nuclear weapons in the Mideast region. Israel is outside the NPT and its atomic arsenal, though it has never confirmed or denied it, is an open secret. By staying outside the NPT, Israel has not had to foreswear nuclear arms or admit inspectors to the sites where it has produced atomic arms. NPT member Iran has allowed UN nuclear inspectors access to its sites. Western nations, in an attempt to turn the focus away from Israel, say NPT members like Iran and Syria are a more pressing topic for the IAEA. They are likely to argue that the agency's latest report on Iran has strengthened the case for a fourth round of sanctions, with a Security Council vote seen next week. IAEA chief Amano is expected to urge Iran to open up its nuclear program fully to his inspectors to help dispel suspicions of covert atomic weapons activity and prove it is for peaceful uses only as Tehran maintains. Iran will want to turn attention to a plan, brokered with non-permanent UN Security Council members Turkey and Brazil last month, for it to part with some of its nuclear material in return for special fuel rods for a medical research reactor. Western officials do not appreciate the nuclear deal and have attempted to delegitimize it by calling it a last-minute Iranian attempt to stall sanctions. IAEA governors will also assess a report that accuses Syria of engaging in covert nuclear work at a desert site bombed by Israel in 2007.
