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Article: Push for Nuclear-Free Middle East Resurfaces; Arab Nations Seek Answers About Israel
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- March 6, 2005
- Author:
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Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency,
and several Arab countries have said they plan to push discussion of
creating a nuclear-free Middle East at the May conference of nations
that have signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
For Arab nations, it is a way of highlighting their complaint that
Israel's possession of nuclear weapons has been a major factor behind
any proliferation in the region, and that the United States employs a
double standard in demanding no nuclear weapons programs from Iran
and Arab states.
In a speech last month, former Iranian president Ali Akbar Hashemi
Rafsanjani said his country had been subjected to "bullying" by the
IAEA "despite the ...