JERUSALEM: IAEA CHIEF MOHAHAMMED ELBARADEI BEGINS TALKS WITH ISRAEL AIMED AT RIDDING THE MIDDLE EAST OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS
Record ID:
646829
JERUSALEM: IAEA CHIEF MOHAHAMMED ELBARADEI BEGINS TALKS WITH ISRAEL AIMED AT RIDDING THE MIDDLE EAST OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS
- Title: JERUSALEM: IAEA CHIEF MOHAHAMMED ELBARADEI BEGINS TALKS WITH ISRAEL AIMED AT RIDDING THE MIDDLE EAST OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS
- Date: 7th July 2004
- Summary: (EU) JERUSALEM (JULY 7, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. EXTERIOR OF ISRAELI MINISTRY OF HEALTH 0.06 2. HEAD OF INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY (IAEA), MOHAMMED ELBARADEI ENTERING ELEVATOR 0.15 3. ELBARADEI SEATED WITH ISRAELI MINISTER OF HEALTH DANNY NAVEH/ CLOSE OF ELBARADEI/ PAN TO CLOSE OF NAVEH 0.27 4. (SOUNDBITE)(English) ELBARADEI SAYING: "Well as you know the work of the agency consists of two mandates. One is make sure that the nuclear energy is used for health, agriculture development and that as part of my work and consultation here in Israel is to look into our bilateral work and to discuss cooperation in this field. We have extensive activities here in Israel: the area of agriculture, fighting fruit fly for example, in the area of health when we have a number of projects here or will have a number of project to treat, diagnose cancer for example. That is one aspect of our work. The other aspect is the security issues and that is to make sure nuclear energy is not misused for military purpose and that is also what I am discussing here to see how we can improve security in the Middle East, ensure that the Middle East is free from weapons of mass destruction and nuclear weapons. So I have a lot of consultations here and I am going through the visit. I had a good meeting today and I'll have more meetings tomorrow." / PULL OUT TO WIDE OF ELBARADEI AND NAVEH SEATED 1.48 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 22nd July 2004 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: JERUSALEM
- City:
- Country: Israel
- Reuters ID: LVA2T9GJ4VKDV6EI73FRH5V2K4CX
- Story Text: IAEA chief ElBaradei begins talks with Israel aimed
at ridding the Middle East of nuclear weapons.
U.N. nuclear watchdog head Mohammed ElBaradei met
Israeli minister of Health Danny Naveh on Wednesday (July
7), in first of a series of meetings with Israeli
government officials.
ElBaradei, who arrived on Tuesday (July 6) and will
leave on Friday (July 9), hopes to get Israel to begin
talks on ridding the Middle East of atomic arms, whether it
admits to having them or not.
Under its policy of "strategic ambiguity", Israel
neither admits nor denies having nuclear arms. But
international experts believe Israel has between 100 to 200
warheads based on estimates of the amount of plutonium its
reactors have produced.
ElBaradei had wanted to get the Israelis to abandon
their ambiguity policy, Western diplomats said, but Israel
says this would be impossible at present given continued
hostility from the neighbouring Arab world and Iran.
".....I am discussing here to see how we can improve
security in the Middle East, ensure that the Middle East is
free from weapons of mass destruction and nuclear weapons,"
ElBaradei said after a meeting with Israeli Minister of
Health Danny Naveh.
But a diplomat, who declined to be identified, said
ElBaradei would not be pushing Israel to abandon its
policy, which it has kept up for decades for fear of
sparking a regional arms race.
Israel is the only Middle East country not to have
signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). This
keeps it exempt from opening up its nuclear programme to
U.N. inspectors.
During his visit, ElBaradei is to tour Israel's atomic
facilities - except for the reactor in the desert town of
Dimona that independent experts believe has produced
plutonium. Israel and the United States accuse Iran of pursuing
nuclear firepower, a charge Tehran denies. Libya and
pre-war Iraq are also known to have unsuccessfully sought
an atomic arsenal.
- Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None