UN nuclear chief urged Israel to come clean

UN atomic watchdog chief Yukiya Amano urged Israel to come clean about its undeclared nuclear weapons capability during a visit to the country in August, an IAEA report revealed yesterday.
During the visit, the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) “invited Israel to consider to accede to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and to place all its nuclear facilities under comprehensive IAEA safeguards,” the report said.
The move followed a non-binding resolution by IAEA members last September, in which they expressed “concern about the Israeli nuclear capabilities.”
Though undeclared, Israel is widely considered to be the Middle East’s sole nuclear weapon state.
Jerusalem reacted however “in line” with an earlier response by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, the IAEA report said.
In a July 26 letter, Lieberman wrote to Amano that any compliance with the IAEA’s resolution from last September “would be unjustified from a political and legal standpoint and this resolution should be removed from the agenda of the IAEA.”
While an IAEA member, Israel is not a signatory to the NPT.