Iran wants IAEA to switch concern to Israel

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 18:36:50 GMT

Iran's envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has urged the top nuclear body to switch its focus from Syria's atomic work to Israel's nuclear arsenal as the main cause for concern.

Ali Asghar Soltanieh read out a statement in the Thursday meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors on the implementation of the Safeguards Agreements in Syria.

In the statement, Soltanieh said that Iran was "deeply concerned" about the IAEA's verification measures which, he said have shifted focus from Israel's nuclear work as the main source of problem to "secondary technical" issues.

"The core problem is, in fact, the Zionist regime of Israel's offensive against Syria which is a blatant violation of the UN Charter and the international law including the Statute of the International Atomic Energy Agency," Fars News Agency quoted Soltanieh as saying on Thursday.

In September 2007, Israeli warplanes destroyed Syria's al-Kibar military site blaming the country for harboring a nuclear reactor there, a claim rejected by Syria.

Soltanieh then accused Israel and its allies of having engaged the IAEA in a made-up scenario by raising "false claims" against Syria.

"Meanwhile, those member states who cry foul over Syria ['s nuclear work] have turned a blind eye to the Israeli regime's nuclear arsenal, which poses a serious threat to both regional and global peace and security," he said.

An IAEA report by Director General Yukiya Amano said in February that uranium particles found at the Syrian complex suggest the possibility of covert nuclear activity at the site.

In response to the report, Syria said that unlike Israel, it was "committed to the non-proliferation agreement," reiterating that its nuclear work is totally peaceful.

Israel, the world's sixth largest nuclear weapons power, maintains a policy known as "nuclear ambiguity" and continues to remain outside the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.