Israel Lowering its Rhetorical Profile on Iran's Nuke Plans
August 21, 2003
Ha'aretz
Aluf Benn
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has ordered a lowering of Israel's posturing over the Iranian nuclear weapons program, in order to allow American diplomacy to work on the issue.
Against that backdrop, Gideon Frank, head of the Atomic Energy Agency, left for Washington this week to coordinate Jerusalem's position with the U.S. administration.
On September 8, the board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is holding a critical session in Vienna to hear a report by IAEA director Mohamed El Baradei on his inspections mission to Iran.
The board will have to decide whether the Iranians have violated existing agreements Tehran has signed, and if so, whether to hand the problem over to the UN Security Council, something El Baradei would prefer not to do. He does, however, want Tehran to sign the "additional protocol," which would give IAEA inspectors much more leeway and teeth in their inspections of Iranian nuclear facilities. Tehran says it is studying the document.
Israel supports the demand for Tehran to sign the additional protocol, and also wants Tehran to cease its project to enrich uranium that can be used for nuclear weapons. For years, Israel warned the U.S., Russia and EU countries about the Iranian nuclear program, to little avail. But in recent months there are many signs of a fundamental change in approach by the international community. A series of revelations from the Iranian opposition about the Iranian nuclear program exposed a great deal of information that until then had only been known to insiders in western intelligence agencies.
In the wake of those publications, the IAEA joined the cause for tighter inspections in Iran. France tightened its exports of technology and the U.S. won an attentive ear in Moscow for Russia to delay its operation of the power station that Russian companies are building near the Iranian city of Bushehr.
With the mounting international attention, likely to increase as September 8 approaches, Israel decided to lower its own profile on the subject and stay out of the limelight on the issue. That should make it more difficult for the Iranians to deflect international criticism as an Israeli plot, while also helping to avoid "balanced" decisions that would link the inspections and limits on the Iranians with parallel restraints on Israeli activity.
Tehran is now trying to gain time in its talks with IAEA inspectors. Government sources in Jerusalem say the El Baradei report will be tougher than in the past, but not so vehement as to require moving the issue to the Security Council agenda. Frank will head the Israeli delegation to Vienna, which will participate in three forums: the treaty against nuclear testing, the board of governors (where Israel has observer status), and the general assembly. The IAEA will hear a proposal from the Arab bloc to condemn Israeli's "nuclear threat" and a proposal for making the Middle East nuclear-free. The condemnations have been voted off the agenda in recent years in exchange for an Israeli agreement to accept a nuclear-free Middle East, but Israeli policy is that will only be possible in the context of a general comprehensive peace for the region.
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