Arabs demand IAEA watch over Israeli nuclear facilities

The Arab member states of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have included an item on the agenda of the agency's forthcoming annual convention, due on September 16, demanding Israel to put its nuclear facilities and materials under IAEA watch, official sources in the agency said on Tuesday. The IAEA handed out copies of the annual convention agenda to its members, which included an additional item submitted by head of the Arab Group in Vienna, Oman's Ambassador Badr Al-Hinai. The item was a request that Israeli nuclear capabilities be put on the convention's agenda, official IAEA sources confirmed to KUNA. The sources also indicated that IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano has received the Arab request for the items to be included in the agenda of the September convention, despite objection by Western countries to this Arab move. In the same context, Arab diplomatic sources told KUNA that the Arab Group had no alternative but to address this item in this manner, due to Western countries failure to honor their commitments. This was in reference, among other things, to promises of hosting an international conference to start talks on a proposed Middle East zone that is free of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction, originally planned to be held in late 2012.