October 25, 2003	Saturday	Sha’aban 28, 1424

VIENNA, Oct 24: The head of the UN nuclear watchdog said that Israel, which has never publicly admitted to having atomic weapons, would be willing to get rid of any nuclear arms it may have if there was peace in the Middle East.

Despite Israel’s refusal to deny or confirm the possession of a nuclear arsenal, non-proliferation analysts estimate that the country has anywhere from 100 to 200 atomic weapons.

Israel has not signed the 1968 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the global pact aimed at stopping the spread of nuclear weapons. The other five atomic weapons states — the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France — have signed it.

“(It is) good news, at least, that Israel agreed that in the long term they need to get rid of their nuclear weapons capability or the nuclear weapons that they have,” International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei said in an interview with Austria’s Die Presse newspaper.

It was not immediately clear when and how Israel had communicated this to the IAEA, which has never inspected Israel’s alleged atomic weapons programme and only carries out limited inspections of a single research reactor in Israel.

“However they (Israel) are saying they cannot do that except in the context of a comprehensive peace, when their right to exist is fully recognized by all the countries of the region,” he said in the English transcript of the interview.—Reuters