Qatar strongly calls on IAEA to oversee Israel’s nuclear reactors

Qatar says the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) should closely monitor Israel’s nuclear activities and oversee its nuclear reactors, emphasizing the urgent need for opening the regime’s atomic reactors to inspectors.

Qatar’s Ambassador to Austria and Permanent Representative to the United Nations and International Organizations in Vienna Sultan bin Salmeen Al Mansouri made the comments at a session of the IAEA Board of Governors in the Austrian capital amid discussion on Israeli nuclear capabilities on Saturday.

The Qatari envoy stressed “the importance of Israel cooperating with the International Atomic Energy Agency regarding its nuclear capabilities, and to open its atomic reactors to inspectors,” said a statement by Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Mansouri’s remarks came in response to allegations leveled by the Israeli representative in the IAEA against Qatar. 

He asked the Israeli envoy to “stop giving speeches of incitement and deliberately obliterating facts, and not to evade revealing the truth about Israel's nuclear capabilities,” the statement added.

Satellite images reveal Israel quietly expanding secretive Dimona nuclear site

The construction site sits ‘in the immediate vicinity of the buildings that house the nuclear reactor and the reprocessing plant.’

Under its policy of nuclear ambiguity, Israel neither confirms nor denies having nuclear weapons. However, the regime is widely believed to be one of only nine nuclear-armed countries in the world.

The Tel Aviv regime is believed to have the Middle East’s only nuclear arsenal with an estimated several hundred warheads.

“All Arab countries, including the State of Qatar, joined the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons [NPT] and adopted and agreed to all international resolutions calling for the Middle East to be free of nuclear weapons, while Israel refuses to engage in these efforts,” the statement further quoted the Qatari envoy as saying. 

Israel has so far rejected global calls to join the NPT, refusing to allow international inspectors to observe its controversial nuclear program.

Mansouri, while touching upon the issue of the Tel Aviv regime’s recent brutal aggression against the besieged Gaza Strip, further asked whether “there are guarantees that Israel will not use its weapons in an irresponsible way in the future, including the terrifying possibility of using nuclear weapons.”

Israeli stockpiles of nuclear warheads pose biggest threat to peace, security: Iran

Iran says Israel’s stockpiles of nuclear warheads poses the biggest threat to international peace and security, urging the international community to work towards a nuke-free world.

The Israeli aggression was launched on May 10, after the enclave rose up in protest against Tel Aviv’s escalations in the occupied West Bank.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said 260 Palestinians were killed in the Israeli war, including 66 children.

An Egyptian-brokered truce that came into force in the wee hours of May 21 finally ended the apartheid regime’s military confrontation.

The Qatari envoy also lambasted “Israel's behavior in its policy towards the Palestinians, its failure to observe international law, and its use of all kinds of weapons to oppress the Palestinian people,” the statement said.

“The recent Israeli aggression on Gaza, and the excessive and disproportionate use of force against civilians and the destruction of civilian infrastructure, angered world public opinion,” Mansouri was further quoted as saying.

Hamas warns of fresh ‘confrontation' if Israel continues violations

A spokesman said another round of confrontation could begin if Israel does not end daily incursions into the Palestinian territory.

He also urged the international community and its relevant institutions to support the goal of freeing the Middle East from nuclear weapons, and to take practical steps to achieve that goal, based on its legal and moral responsibility, the statement added.

Israel’s nuclear activities were uncovered when whistle-blower Mordechai Vanunu, originally a technician at Dimona nuclear facility, handed overwhelming evidence of the regime’s nuclear program to Britain’s Sunday Times in 1986.

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