|
|
August 6, 2004/Av 19 5763, Vol. 55, No. 46
Campaign could halt nukes
LESLIE SUSSER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
JERUSALEM - After months of keeping a low profile on Iran's nuclear program, Israel has launched an intensive diplomatic campaign to convince the international community to pressure Tehran to drop its efforts to produce a nuclear bomb.
Israeli officials say the campaign, involving the United States, the European Union and the International Atomic Energy Agency, is focusing on a September meeting of the IAEA board of governors in Vienna. That body has the power to refer the "Iranian nuclear dossier" to the U.N. Security Council, where international sanc-tions could be imposed.
The Israeli diplomatic move has been accompanied by a veiled threat of attack on Iranian nuclear facilities if the international community fails to stop Teheran's nuclear weapons drive. But the Iranians, undeterred, are continuing to pursue an ambivalent and potentially military nuclear program.
Like Israel, the United States is seeking stiffer international action. The E.U. position has been less decisive, however, and it is not clear whether the union will back a U.S. demand for sanctions. Europe's position could be crucial.
Israel stopped its public criticism of Teheran after Iran and Libya intimated a readiness late last year to cooperate with the inter-national community in dismantling their nuclear weapons programs.
At the time, Israeli experts said Libya was serious, but they didn't trust Iran. Still, given the new situation and not wanting to draw attention to its own alleged nuclear capabilities, Israel decided to adopt a low profile on Iran, and let the United States and Europe take the lead in pressuring Teheran to drop its nuclear weapons drive.
Now Israel feels the international community has not been firm enough, and has allowed Iran to get away with a pretense of coopera-tion while clandestinely furthering its nuclear am-bitions.
In late June, Israeli leaders decided to change tack. As a first step, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom initiated a July 2 meeting in Washington on the Iranian issue with the U.S. national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice.
Afterward, Shalom declar-ed that the international community "cannot allow the Iranians to move forward in their efforts to develop nuclear weapons."
Less than a week later, the IAEA's director general, Mohammed El-Baradei, came to Israel, where all his interlocutors, including Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, stressed the danger to world peace of nuclear weapons in Iranian hands.
On July 22, when the E.U.'s foreign policy boss, Javier Solana, visited Israel, his hosts made sure his itinerary included a meeting with Mossad chief Meir Dagan, who provided Israeli intelligence material purporting to show Iran's nuclear duplicity.
Leslie Susser is the diplomatic correspondent for the Jerusalem Report.
|
|
