U.N. official visits Israel amid nuclear rivalry fear

JERUSALEM – The head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog agency arrived in Israel for a rare visit Tuesday evening amid growing fears of a nuclear rivalry in the Middle East between Israel and Iran.

Mohamed ElBaradei is promoting the idea of a nuclear-free Middle East, but he also is expected to urge Israel to be more forthcoming about any nuclear warheads in its arsenal.

His message is getting a cool reception from the region’s only nuclear power, where there’s disappointment and anger at the Egyptian-born director of the International Atomic Energy Agency for not dealing more harshly with Israel’s foe Iran. Israelis want the United Nations to sanction Iran for not being more forthcoming with IAEA inspectors who are trying to determine whether the Islamic republic is developing atomic weapons, which Iran denies.

Israel has pursued a clandestine nuclear program since 1952. While Israeli policy is to neither confirm nor deny the existence of its nuclear weapons, international experts say plutonium production here indicates Israel has more than 100 warheads.

The timing of ElBaradei’s visit – the first since 1998 – is awkward, Gerald M. Steinberg, a political analyst at Tel Aviv’s Bar-Ilan University and consultant to Israel’s National Security Council, wrote in a column in Tuesday’s Jerusalem Post. It turns world attention away from Iran’s burgeoning nuclear program and toward Israel, whose nuclear policies ElBaradei has said contribute to regional instability.