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Arab Leagues charges Israel recruited 10,000 ex-Soviet nuke experts

Special to World Tribune.com
MIDDLE EAST NEWSLINE
Tuesday, January 25, 2000

CAIRO [MENL] -- The Arab League has accused Israel of recruiting 10,000 nuclear scientists and technicians from the former Soviet Union since 1997 as part of an effort to accelerate the purported nuclear program of the Jewish state.

The assertion was made during a debate by the Arab League in Cairo in a session to plan Arab strategy before a review conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The treaty will be reviewed by signatories in April in New York.

Egypt and many Arab countries have signed the NPT. Israel has refused until peace is achieved in the Middle East, citing the nuclear programs of Iran and Iraq.

The Palestinian representative to the league, Mohammed Sbeih, accused Israel of intensifying its purported nuclear weapons program and completing preparations to install nuclear warheads on missiles. Sbeih said Israel has recruited 32,000 scientists from the former Soviet Union over the last three years, 10,000 of whom are nuclear scientists and technicians.

"This is correct," he told the British Broadcasting Corp. on Monday. "This is an Israeli figure and it has announced this. We have submitted a complaint on this."

"The question is does Israel have nuclear weapons or not?" Sbeih asked "The answer is yes."

Sbeih cited testimony by former Israeli nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu and former Prime Minister Shimon Peres. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied that it has nuclear weapons but it has pledged that it will not be the first to introduce nuclear weapons in the Middle East.

"We know that Israel plans to stop any nuclear weapons program by an Islamic or Arab state," Sbeih said. "This is no secret to anybody."

Sbeih said Israel obtained information on nuclear weapons from the United States and other countries, which he would not name.

On Feb. 25, an Arab League committee will convene in Cairo to draft a plan to make the Middle East region free of mass destruction weapons and Israel's nuclear weapons.

But Sbeih did not expect the Arab League efforts to change Israel's position on nuclear weapons.

"I personally don't think so," he said. "But that doesn't mean that the Arabs or the international community should stop their pressure on Israel until it begins to demonstrate logic regarding the nuclear weapons program."

Tuesday, January 25, 2000


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