Angry over Lebanon, Arabs slam Israel on atom arms

VIENNA, Sep 20 (Reuters) Arab states, angry at the devastation caused in Lebanon by Israel's war against Hizbollah, launched a new attempt today to have the UN nuclear watchdog condemn the Jewish state's reputed atomic arsenal.

Israel again rebuffed what has become an annual Arab effort to get the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to press it to join the Non-Proliferation Treaty arms-control pact and help set up a nuclear weapons-free zone in West Asia.

After Egyptian and Syrian envoys to the IAEA's annual meeting of member states said Israel's position bred instability, Israel said such a regional zone was a frivolous idea so long as some neighbours continued not to recognise the Jewish state.

Israel neither admits nor denies having nuclear weapons.

Most experts believe it has about 200 atomic bombs. The Jewish state has never signed up to the 40-year-old NPT.

Fifteen Arab states led by Syria and including Egypt and Jordan, the only ones with diplomatic links to Israel, and Lebanon urged the 141 IAEA member nations to press Israel in a motion entitled ''Israeli nuclear capabilities and threat''.

US and European Union opposition has thwarted such symbolic moves against Israel at the IAEA in the past.

Unlike recent years, when such statements stalled in committee, the Arabs this time put a resolution on the plenary agenda and diplomats pointed to heightened resentment after Israel's war with Hizbollah devastated south Lebanon.

A decision on the resolution was expected on Friday.

LEBANON WAR DEEPENS ENMITIES After Hizbollah kidnapped two Israeli soldiers in a border raid, Israel carried out heavy bombings in Lebanon that it said targeted Hizbollah fighters but which killed mostly civilians and wrecked infrastructure before a ceasefire on August 14.

Two-thirds of Israel's dead in the war were soldiers.

Israeli forces have continued to pound Gaza over Palestinian militants' abduction of another Israeli soldier, and about half of Palestinians killed in the offensive have been civilians.

''This criminal aggression against Lebanon and Palestine must prompt us today to look at these two (resolutions) seriously, credibly,'' Ibrahim Othman, Syria's atomic energy commission chief, said in a speech to the IAEA gathering in Vienna.

''The fact Israel is the only country (in West Asia) with nuclear weapons and refusing to adhere to the NPT is a matter that undermines peace and security in our area,'' he said.

Ramzy Ezzeldin Ramzy, Cairo's ambassador to the IAEA, said: ''The continued imbalance (of power) in the Middle East threatens the region and provides legitimacy to an arms race in the region and Egypt cannot accept this.'' Gideon Frank, Israel's atomic energy commission director, said both motions were unwarranted and unrealistic.

He cited ''alarming nuclear and missile proliferation developments'' in an allusion to Iran, whose leaders openly call for Israel's elimination, and ''sustained efforts by certain leaders in the region to deny the very legitimacy'' of Israel.

''Such a noble cause (nuclear weapons-free zone) cannot be advanced out of context, (but only with) a fundamental transformation of the regional political-strategic climate through a gradual process of building trust and reconciliation, followed by more modest arms-control measures,'' Frank said.

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