Israel Rails Against IAEA Vote on Nuclear Arsenal

Blames Iran for Vote Criticizing Secret Program

Next month’s IAEA meeting in Vienna is going to have the same fight that has so often been present at other such meetings, as Israeli officials are expressing outrage at the idea that a vote might be held at the meeting to criticize Israel for its nuclear weapon arsenal.

The vote, which is backed by several of Israel’s neighbors, calls on the nation to declare its nuclear activists and join the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT), which Israel has ruled out ever doing.

Instead, Israeli officials say that the whole vote is a plot by Iran to distract attention from its own program. Iran has no nuclear weapons, and is a member in good standing of the NPT.

Indeed, it does not appear that Iran had anything to do with this initiative, which is instead a product of the “nuclear-free Mideast” initiative that the Obama Administration initially endorsed, and then later condemned after Israel expressed opposition. Israel is the only nuclear weapons power in the Middle East.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.