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6 October 2008…..
Foreign Minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit received the report from Egypt's permanent delegate to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on the conclusions of the 52nd session of the IAEA General Conference, held in Vienna during the period from 29 September to 5 October 2008.
The Spokesman for the Foreign Ministry stated that Aboul Gheit welcomed the adoption of Egypt's resolution entitled "the Application of the IAEA Safeguards System in the Middle East" by majority of votes, where 82 member states voted for the resolution, 13 abstained and no objections.
The Spokesman added that the Minister has welcomed, in particular, the inclusion of an effective article which calls upon all the Middle East countries to join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The article is clearly directed to Israel, being the only country in the region that has not joined the Treaty yet. A separate vote was held on this article in particular, where Israel voted against it, whereas the US and Canada abstained.
Stressing the importance of what the Egyptian delegation affirmed during the General Conference deliberations, the Minister affirmed the necessity of applying the IAEA safeguards System on all nuclear facilities in the Middle East, especially that there are Israeli nuclear facilities which are not subject to any international control, and therefore constitute a threat to the security of the entire region and the lives of its citizens.
The Spokesman affirmed that the Minister is concerned to follow up on the efforts aiming to improve the efficiency of the IAEA Safeguards System. He outlined that Egypt supports and contributes in these efforts. Egypt, notwithstanding, demands to extend the application of this system to all the nuclear facilities in the Middle East, including the Israeli facilities which are not subject to it, before asking other countries to accept additional commitments, including the application of the "Model Additional Protocol".
The Minister reviewed the report presented by Egypt's permanent delegate to the IAEA concerning the double standards some countries adopt in dealing with the nuclear non-proliferation issues. Aboul Gheit confirmed that the persistence of the Western countries and Israel to raise the issue of the Middle Eastern countries' compliance with their international commitments – repeatedly during the conference – while ignoring the core of the problem, namely: the exclusion of the Israeli nuclear facilities from the IAEA Safeguards System, is considered quite astonishing. The Minister noted that this means they exclude Israel from the responsibility of abiding by the System, being the only country in the region that refused any commitments in the field of non-proliferation.
The Spokesman stated that the abstention of the US, Israel and Canada from voting for the Egyptian resolution, in addition to the Western countries obvious bias to the Israeli stances, affirm that those countries are not committed to the aim of establishing a nuclear free zone in the Middle East. They are, instead, more concerned about unconditional defense of what they perceive as the interest of Israel, and, furthermore, on guaranteeing that Israel enjoys a special and distinguished status in the Middle East. |