The Arab League on Thursday criticized the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), UN's nuclear watchdog, for producing a "weak and disappointing" report on Israel's nuclear capacities, and pledged to step up efforts to persuade the Jewish nation to join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
The Arab nations also rejected calls from the US and EU to abstain from pushing for a resolution voicing concerns on Israel's nuclear capabilities at the upcoming 54th annual conference of the IAEA in Vienna next week.
In a statement issued to IAEA's governing board on Thursday, the Arab League said it would urge all the Arab and other member states of the UN nuclear agency to vote in favor of a non-binding resolution that voices concerns on Israel's nuclear arms and calls on the Jewish country to open its nuclear sites to IAEA inspections.
The move comes after last year's IAEA's general conference narrowly approved a similar resolution calling on Israel to join the Non-Proliferation treaty. That resolution also called on IAEA chief Yukiya Amano to prepare a report on Israel's nuclear capability and on how to persuade Israel to join the NPT.
Amano had submitted the report last month. In the report, the IAEA chief said the Israeli government had rejected the agency's suggestion to open the Jewish nation's nuclear program to international inspections and to join the NPT.
However, the Arab League said in a statement on Thursday that Amano's report inviting Israel to consider joining the NPT was "weak and disappointing, devoid of any substance and not up to the typical level of the Agency's reporting."
"The report neither contained an assessment [of] the Israeli nuclear capabilities, nor did the Agency try to obtain any information about these capabilities, especially concerning a military dimension," the statement added.
Earlier, the United States and European Union had urged the Arab League not to push for the resolution on Israel's nuclear arms at the IAEA general conference, warning that such a move could undermine the ongoing Israeli-Palestine peace talks and harm a proposed conference in 2012 aimed at making the Middle East a nuclear free zone.
Israel is believed to be the only country in the Middle East to possess nuclear weapons. Though experts estimate that Israel has 100 to 200 nuclear warheads, the Jewish nation is yet to disclose its nuclear capabilities or join the NPT.
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