The United States has defended Egypt against
allegations that it has a secret uranium research programme.
The US media reported on Tuesday that the UN nuclear agency
believes Egypt might have conducted secret nuclear experiments.
Such experiments would have violated international
non-proliferation treaties. "We've seen the press
reports. We don't have anything definitive or authoritative
from the IAEA. I expect we'll be discussing these press
reports with them," State Department deputy spokesman
Adam Ereli told a briefing in Washington.
We certainly believe it is imperative
that member states comply with their nuclear safeguards
obligations," he said. "We support the IAEA
in its efforts to investigate and document compliance
by member states with their nuclear non-proliferation
treaty obligations and safeguards agreement." Egypt
is a member of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and
has an active safeguard agreement with the IAEA, the Vienna-based
UN monitoring agency.
According to US media reports, the IAEA
has found evidence of secret nuclear experiments in Egypt
that could be used in weapons programmes and most of the
work was carried out in the 1980s and 1990s, but the IAEA
was also looking at evidence suggesting some work was
performed as recently as a year ago.
A day before the US media reported the
allegations about Egypt, an Israeli newspaper, Jerusalem
Post, published an interview with former chief of Israels
Mossad intelligence agency, Ephraim Halevy, who is now
an adviser to the Israeli government.
In that interview, Mr. Halevy claims that
Syria, Saudi Arabia and Egypt might have acquired nuclear
parts from Dr.A.Q. Khan and that one of these countries
now has the potential to achieve a significant nuclear
leap. But he did not name the country. Mr. Halevy also
said his information was dated as he did not have access
to latest reports on Dr. Khan and his alleged network.
Neither US nor Israeli media reports mentioned
that Israel has its own extensive undeclared nuclear programme.
The actual size and composition of Israel's nuclear stockpile
is uncertain, and is the subject of various estimates
and reports.
It is widely reported that Israel had
two bombs in 1967, and had ordered them armed in Israel's
first nuclear alert during the Six-Day War. By the late
1990s, the US Intelligence Community estimated that Israel
possessed 75-130 weapons, based on production estimates.
The stockpile would certainly include
warheads for mobile Jericho-1 and Jericho-2 missiles,
as well as bombs for Israeli aircraft, and may also consist
of other tactical nuclear weapons of various types.
Asked if Washington had any concerns or
information that corroborates the reports about Egypt's
nuclear ambitions, Mr. Ereli said: "At this point,
we would defer to the IAEA to present the evidence that
it has. I'm not in a position to talk about what indications
we may or may not have."
"In our experience, Egypt has been
a responsible member of the Non-Proliferation Treaty and
has an active safeguards agreement with the IAEA, and
that's our view of the situation," Mr. Ereli said.
