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Israel says Arab push to criticize its nuke capabilities takes focus from real threat _ Iran
By Associated Press, Updated: Tuesday, August 28, 1:58 PMAP
VIENNA — Muslim nations and Israel are heading for a confrontation at a 154-nation nuclear meeting next month over an Arab initiative to criticize Israel’s secretive atomic program.
Documents submitted for that gathering show that Arab nations are seeking Israel’s censure — a move the Jewish state says is a sideshow that deflects attention from the real danger to Mideast peace — Iran.
In asking September’s International Atomic Energy Agency meeting to reprimand Israel, Jordan says Israel is guilty of thwarting “all initiatives to free the region of the Middle East of weapons of mass destruction, and in particular of nuclear weapons.”
Israel, in turn, warns that the Arab initiative is “serving Iran’s attempt to divert the attention of the international community … (from) its quest for nuclear weapons.”
Israel is widely assumed to be the only Mideast country with such arms. But it refuses to either confirm or deny its status, sticking to an official policy of ambiguity that, combined with the stalemate over Palestinian demands, feeds tensions in the region.
