LEAD: Israel in hot seat at Middle East nuclear ban conference

Nov 21, 2011, 13:35 GMT

Vienna - Arab countries urged Israel to give up its nuclear arms as a precondition for a nuclear weapons ban in the Middle East, participants at an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) conference said Monday.

The focus of the meeting on a nuclear weapon-free Middle East was not on Iran - which decided to boycott the forum, making it the only country of the region that did not participate - but on Israel, diplomats said.

'Israeli nuclear capabilities pose a grave and continuous threat to others in the region,' said Syrian Ambassador Bassam Sabbagh, according to a participant.

However, representatives from existing nuclear ban zones in Africa and Asia made clear that talks on ridding the Middle East of such weapons could start even while Israel has not disarmed and has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

'Well, in South Africa there were [nuclear] weapons when we started the process in 1964,' South African envoy Abdul Samad Minty told reporters, referring to the process that led to the African nuclear weapon-free zone.

Contrary to Arab views, Israel has said it wants a peace settlement in the Middle East before considering a nuclear ban. No Israeli diplomat spoke in the conference Monday morning.

Israel and 17 Arab countries, as well as Palestine, were represented at the forum.

Iran stayed away, because the IAEA issued a report this month containing many indications that the country is developing a nuclear weapon, and because it views such conferences as useless as long as Israel keeps its arsenal.

Tehran's envoy Ali Asghar Soltanieh criticized that IAEA chief Amano was turning a blind eye towards Israel while focusing on Iran.

'He is totally ignoring the concerns of the international community vis-a-vis Israel,' he told dpa.

Diplomats said the Vienna meeting could be a preliminary step to further talks on a nuclear free zone that are planned next year in Finland.

Besides Israel's weapons and Iran's controversial activities, Iraq had a nuclear arms programme that was stopped after the Gulf War. Libya gave up its military atomic efforts in 2003.

Currently, the IAEA is trying to learn more about an alleged secret Syrian reactor that Israel bombed in 2007.

Read more about IAEA