STATEMENT By Dr. Shaul Chorev Israel Atomic Head Energy Commission The 55 th General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency September 20111 1
Distinguished delegates, Let me begin my address by congratulating you, upon your election to preside over the 55th General Conference of the IAEA. I can assure you of the full cooperation of my delegation, in carrying out your important assignment. I also wish to congratulate the Commonwealth of Dominica, the Kingdom of Tonga and the Lao People's Democratic Republic, as new members of the Agency. This has been an unusual year in many respects. The international community has been shaken by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident. The safety of nuclear power, and the future of the nuclear industry, has become pressing issues in many countries. Public anxiety caused by the accident has brought governments, to underline their long-term commitment to continuously improving nuclear safety. Nuclear accidents respect no borders. The broad implications of the Fukushima crisis have brought the Director General of the IAEA, Mr. Yukiya Amano, to convene last June a high-level Conference, with a view to drawing on the lessons from the accident, and raise awareness to the need for high standards of nuclear safety. Israel commends the Director General for his initiative and efforts, and 2
supports the endorsement of the Action Plan on Nuclear Safety by the General Conference. The Action plan emphasizes, among others, the need for all countries to ensure that their regulatory authorities are as effective as possible and genuinely independent as well as the need to strengthen the global emergency preparedness and response system. Israel's two nuclear centers operate according to high safety standards, which are compatible with IAEA standards. They are operated under the supervision of Israel s Nuclear Licensing and Safety Office, which enjoys independent status. Additional important pillar of the Action Plan is national and regional Emergency Preparedness and Response. In our June address to the Safety Conference, we emphasized the merit of a regional emergency preparedness and response system. We also proposed to study jointly in the region, the lessons learned from Fukushima, and to promote such regional cooperation. Israel looks forward to establish a constructive dialogue with its neighbors, on issues of nuclear safety and security. On the national level, Israel has long put in place all necessary emergency response procedures. Although Israel considers the probability of leakage or emission of 3
radioactivity from its nuclear research centers to be very low, it has a contingency plan for such an emergency. Israel also conducts periodic national preparedness exercises for the same purpose. The most recent one was carried out successfully earlier this month. It was conducted by the Home Front Command, with the participation of relevant emergency responding agencies and the supervision of the Israel Atomic Energy Commission experts. In order to mitigate the possible negative consequences of the Fukushima nuclear accident in the public domain, the IAEC has also initiated a corresponding educational program and is about to expand it by inaugurating a nuclear educational center and exhibition in the city of Be'er Sheva. In this respect, we wish to remind the Conference that Israel is a signatory to the Convention on Early Notification of a Nuclear Accident and the Convention on the Assistance in the Case of a Nuclear or Radiological Accident. Israel also implements the IAEA Code of Conduct on the Safety and Security of Research Reactors. In addition, Israel is actively participating in the Safety Committees of the IAEA including the Commission on Safety Standards. A new Middle East is evolving. Profound changes have taken place in many regional states. The positive implications of the democratization process in the 4
Middle East, may offer an opportunity for better atmosphere, which could be conducive to the building of trust and confidence among regional parties. Israel s approach and policy in the field of regional security and arms control has always been responsible and prudent. It is rooted in its belief that all security concerns of regional members, should be taken into account and be realistically addressed within the regional context. The essential preconditions for the establishment of the Middle East as a mutually verifiable zone, free of weapons of mass destruction and delivery systems are comprehensive and durable regional peace, and full compliance by all regional states, with their arms control and non-proliferation obligations. The international experience has proven that such a zone, can only emanate from within a region, through direct negotiations. The Middle East region is no exception. No majority vote in international fora can be a substitute for wide regional consent and cooperation. Guided by its conviction, Israel has positively engaged last July in Brussels in a the EU Seminar titled promoting confidence building in support of a process aimed at establishing a zone free of WMD and means of delivery in the Middle East. Israel has also demonstrated a cooperative attitude towards the initiative by the IAEA Director General, to convene a Forum, to learn from the experience of other regions. The forum will address confidence building measures relevant to the establishment of a Nuclear Weapon Free Zone. Israel has done so in spite of 5
current disturbing events in the Middle East, and its reservations regarding last year's resolution titled "Application of IAEA Safeguards in the Middle East". Israel's approach towards the IAEA intended Forum, and other related events, cannot be separated from the evolving regional circumstances, and the attitude manifested towards Israel in international fora, including in this General Conference. Israel therefore hopes that the Arab States will display a similar positive attitude, and will make use of such an occasion, to foster a sincere dialogue among regional states. In this respect, the continued denial of Israel's membership in the Middle East and South Asia (MESA) regional group by the Arab States, is counter productive and negates dialogue and political accommodation. Unlike the nuclear accident in Fukushima, which was nature-induced, the negative developments in the nuclear domain in the Middle East region are entirely manmade. They are reflected in the IAEA Director General's Reports on Iran and Syria, and the Board of Governors, and the United Nations Security Council resolutions. These Reports and Resolutions do not come as much surprise. Regimes that brutally oppress their own citizens, and do not hesitate to plunge into bloodshed, have no hesitation when it comes to non-compliance with their legally binding 6
obligations under international law. Libya of Muamer Gaddafi has set one such negative example, but it is not alone. While joining the Treaty of Pelindaba on the African Nuclear Weapon Free Zone in 1996, it has continued its clandestine nuclear program until mid-2003. Regrettably, the lesson has not yet been learned and the international community has failed to convey a decisive message to such rulers. Those still consider noncompliance as a low risk. The international community should prove them wrong. Violators should be punished. With regards to Syria, a nominal party to the NPT, the Agency assessed in its Report of last May that it is very likely that the building destroyed at the Dair Alzur site, was a nuclear reactor, which should have been declared to the Agency. Syria still refuses to allow IAEA's access to its entire nuclear activities and sites. The Iranian regime is persistent in its refusal to comply with its international obligations. The Agency stated in its September Report that "it is increasingly concerned about the possible existence in Iran, of past or current undisclosed nuclear-related activities, involving military related organizations, including activities related to the development of a nuclear payload for a missile, about which the Agency continues to receive new information. The information available to the Agency in connection with these outstanding issues is extensive and comprehensive". 7
Israel has no doubt that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons under the facade of its NPT membership. Iran is claiming a non-existing need for enrichment of uranium. Uranium enriched up to 20% does not have a use in the civilian nuclear power plants that Iran claims to desire. Not only is Iran continuing its enrichment-related activities in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions, but it is also engaged in activities directly related to the design and testing of nuclear weapons. Absent an effective response by the international community, Iran may become the first country to acquire nuclear weapons while being a member of the NPT. Against this backdrop, some still prefer to find refuge in carefully worded diplomatic phrases, which are obscuring ominus realities, and obstructing effective concerted response. The Nuclear security Summit hosted by the US President Barack Obama, recognized the close association between the threat of nuclear proliferation, and the threat of nuclear terrorism sponsored and supported by rogue states. With the collapse of Gaddafi's regime, and the volatile situation in Syria, efforts by the international community should be directed towards urgent counter proliferation issues in these two countries. This worrisome situation in Libya and Syria is a fresh reminder of the need to work together to secure nuclear materials and to prevent 8
illicit nuclear trafficking and terrorism. This topic should also be the focus of the second Nuclear Security Summit, to be held in South Korea next year. For its part, Israel is committed to the IAEA Illicit Trafficking Database and contributed both financially and in-kind to the Agency s Department of Nuclear Safety and Security. Israel is a signatory of the Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism and has launched its ratification process and intends to ratify shortly the amendment to the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Materials. Last year, the General Conference rejected an Arab-sponsored resolution titled "Israeli Nuclear Capabilities". By doing so, it sent a clear message to its sponsors, that the General Conference wishes to engage on constructive issues, drawn from the mission statement of the IAEA. Nevertheless, in June this year, the Arab States have requested, once again, to include on the General Conference agenda the same ill-motivated item. In recent months they were busily mobilizing support for it in world's capitals. The member states and the Agency would have been best served, if the inclusion of this proposed item on the agenda of the General Conference was denied. By so doing, the General Conference would have demonstrated its determination, not to 9
be endlessly taken hostage by the political and divisive goals of some. Had the Arab States truly been committed to the building of trust and confidence among regional parties, they would have refrained from imposing time and again on the General Conference an anti-israeli agenda item. The aim of this agenda item is to divert attention from their own domestic problems and from serial non-compliance with the NPT and the Safeguards Agreements by some of their members. No tactical short-lived move by the Arab States in this session of the General Conference will advance genuine regional arms control measures. If the Arab States are indeed sincere, they will find in the State of Israel a true partner, for a positive transformation of the General Conference. Different view points among regional parties can not be resolved through imposition of majority vote in the General Conference. I call upon the Arab States to abandon this annual political ritual. Israel recognizes the importance of the Agency s education and training programs for the safe, secure and efficient development of the nuclear field. In this spirit and under the sponsorship of the IAEA Technical Cooperation, Israel will host a Workshop on Quality Assurance in Radiotherapy for the Asia and the Pacific Region. The goal of this workshop is to train physicians, physicists and technicians 10
in the highly important field of cancer treatment. Israel would welcome the participation of all states of the Region in this workshop. Israel has also been instrumental and supportive of IAEA assistance to the Palestinian Authority in these areas. In this era of critical challenges, the State of Israel is looking forward to the strengthening of the IAEA, in the fulfillment of its three-pillar mandate in the areas of peaceful uses of nuclear energy, non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and nuclear safety and security. These formidable tasks ought to be carried out while confronting major threats posed to global and regional peace and security by a small number of rogue states. These states are grossly violating international norms and obligations, challenging world order and brutally oppressing their citizens. This has been a difficult year for many Member States and their people, either due to natural disasters, or negative economic developments, or due to swift and unexpected political changes. The international community as a whole, and its institutions, are also affected. Under these circumstances, it is incumbent upon us all to support the IAEA in fulfilling its mission as entrusted to it by its Statute and 11
to reject efforts by few to hijack the Agency for a narrow political agenda, which is driven by extraneous considerations. On the eve of the Jewish New Year, I wish Member States, their delegates here present, and the Secretariat, fruitful deliberations of this session, and full success of the Agency in its activities, which benefit us all. Thank you Mr. President. 12