Israel rebuffs call to join NPT

Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/155507.html


Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has dismissed Australia's call on Tel Aviv to join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd recently told The Australian newspaper, "Our view has been consistent for a long period of time, and that is that all states in the region should adhere to the NPT, and that includes Israel."

"And therefore their nuclear facility should be subject to IAEA inspection," Rudd said, referring to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

On Tuesday, however, Lieberman rejected the demand, saying that it did not matter if Tel Aviv refused to be a signatory to the pact, Israeli newspaper The Jerusalem Post reported.

Since 1958, when Tel Aviv began building its Dimona plutonium and uranium processing facility in the Negev desert, it has allegedly manufactured scores of nuclear warheads, turning into the sole owner of such weapons in the Middle East.

Former United States President Jimmy Carter has attested to the existence of the arsenal, which he has said includes between 200 to 300 nuclear warheads.

Rudd is on a tour to the region, which has already taken him to Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian territories.

He has also referred to Tel Aviv's relentless settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory of the West Bank as an obstacle to establishment of, what he referred to as, "peace" in the Middle East.