"We need ... to rid the Middle East of all weapons of mass destruction," ElBaradei

MOSCOW, June 28 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Israel should start serious talks of ridding the Middle East of nuclear weapons and end nuclear imbalance in the region, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog said on Sunday, June 27.

Speaking to reporters on an official visit to the Russian capital, Mohamed ElBaradei said that such dialogue would reduce feelings of regional frustration about "what is seen to be a widespread imbalance".

"We need ... to rid the Middle East of all weapons of mass destruction," ElBaradei said.

"Israel agrees with that, but they say it has to be ... after peace agreements."

"My proposal is maybe we need to start to have a parallel dialogue on security at the same time when we're working on the peace process."

ElBaradei said everyone knew that Israel had a nuclear capability, even if Israel has always refused to admit this.

He is due to travel to Israel next month to discuss making the Middle East a nuclear -free zone, the BBC News Online reported.

Asked if he thought the Israelis would be open to such an idea, he said: "I don't know. That's the purpose of my visit."

Inspections

ElBaradei also called on Israel to open up its nuclear facilities for inspection by the UN's nuclear watchdog.

"I think everybody takes it as a given that Israel has a nuclear capability, if not nuclear weapons.

"So whether they would like to come in the open, whether they maintain ... ambiguity, it's for them to decide."

ElBaradei said he would not be "lecturing the Israelis" on whether or not they should acknowledge having atom bombs.

He accused Israel of having a policy of "strategic ambiguity" – neither admitting nor denying it has nuclear weapons - but analysts believe it has more than 100 nuclear weapons, according to the BBC News Online.

Imbalance

ElBaradei, a former Egyptian diplomat, said it was "not sustainable in any region or even globally to have some [people] rely on nuclear weapons and others being told they should not have nuclear weapons".

"As long as you continue to have countries dangling a cigarette from their mouth, you cannot tell everybody not to smoke with a high degree of credibility." 

Israel's Arab neighbors have frequently accused the international community of double standards for requiring them to be free of nuclear weapons while doing little about Israel, it added.

Israel and the United States have both turned up heat on Iran for pursuing nuclear weapons, a charge that Tehran vehemently denies. 

While Iraq and Libya are known to have unsuccessfully pursued atomic weapons, Israel is believed to be the only country in the region with the bomb, said Reuters.

Like India and Pakistan, which have atomic weapons, Israel has never signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), it added.

Last December, ElBaradei asked Israel to give up its secret arsenal of nuclear weapons so as to head off an arms race in the Middle East. 

Emerging from the fortified Shikma prison in southern Israel after serving 18 years in prison for blowing the whistle on Israel’s nuclear program, Mordechai Vanunu called Wednesday, April 21, for opening Israel’s Dimona nuclear plant for international inspection. 

The one-time technician at the Dimona nuclear plant in southern Israel was jailed in 1986 after leaking details of the plant to a British newspaper.

In early 1968, the CIA issued a report concluding that Israel had successfully started production of nuclear weapons. (Click here to read the history of Israel's nuclear arsenal.)  

U.S. intelligence agencies routinely omit Israel from semiannual reports to Congress identifying countries developing weapons of mass destruction to protect the country from any economic or military sanctions.

The Washington Post also revealed last October that Israel has succeeded in modifying U.S.-made cruise missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads to be launched from submarines.