IAEA Plans Middle East Nuclear Forum

The International Atomic Energy Agency plans to discuss Middle East nuclear disarmament in January, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, June 28).

“We have agreed to hold a forum on creation of nuclear-free zones in the world, especially in the Middle East, in January 2005 in Vienna,” agency Director General Mohamed ElBaradei said yesterday.

“With the participation of Arab states, Israel and other countries in the region, the forum will be an occasion to open talks on the necessary conditions for the creation of a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East,” he said.

Arab media outlets have raised the potential for contamination from Israel’s Dimona nuclear plant in the Negev Desert in recent weeks, according to AFP.

“The IAEA is prepared to send observers to Egypt and Jordan to monitor whether there is any evidence of nuclear radiation emanating from Israel,” ElBaradei said.

However, that issue “should not be linked to the observation by Israel of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty nor inspection by the IAEA of Israel’s nuclear activity,” he added (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Aug. 15).

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