By NNN-KUNA
Cairo : Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa has held talks here with Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Mohammed ElBaradei on the nuclear issues in the Middle East.
The talks, held at the headquarters of the League Sunday, reviewed the efforts of the UN nuclear watchdog to rid the region of nuclear weapons and other issues of global concern, Moussa said in a joint press conference with ElBaradei.
For his part, ElBaradei said nuclear weapons were among the main factors of the destabilisation of the region.
He urged support for efforts to denuclearize the region in order to restore stability and security.
All signatories of the non-proliferation treaty (NPT) including the nuclear powers pledged to rid the whole world of nuclear weapons, the IAEA chief said.
As for Iran’s nuclear dossier, he renewed the call for handling the issue through dialogue.
ElBaradei reasserted the competency and capability of the IAEA measures to inspect Iran’s nuclear activities.
However, he said the UN nuclear watchdog could not inspect and verify the intentions of the Iranian leader. “This issue can be settled only through dialogue and confidence-building between Iran and the international community,” he said.
ElBaradei, meanwhile, blamed Iran for failure to meet its commitments to the NPT over the last 18 years as it did not inform the IAEA of its nuclear enrichment activities. “In so doing, Iran made it very hard for the IAEA to build a clear picture of Iran’s nuclear programme,” he said.
Regarding Egypt’s nuclear programme, he said it is purely peaceful as it is subject to IAEA inspections from the very beginning. “Egypt’s first nuclear plant will be operational in 2017 or 2018,” he predicted, asserting the IAEA’s determination to help Egypt in this programme and provide it with the necessary technologies.