U.S. says Israel must renounce nuclear weapons

4/3/2005 9:11:00 AM GMT

U.S. State Department has called on Israel to forswear nuclear weapons and accept (IAEA) international Atomic Energy Agency safeguards on all nuclear activities.

Officials at the Bush administration have called on India, Pakistan and Israel to act like Ukraine and South Africa, which in the last decade renounced their nuclear weapons.

The officials refer to Israel's military nuclear capability, as distinct from "nuclear option," which must be rolled back, although not necessarily in the "foreseeable future."

Those remarks contradict the custom of senior administration officials who always avoid any possible confirming reference to Israel’s nuclear weapons.
The officials, who hold middle-level and lower ranks, are Jackie Wolcott Sanders, ambassador, Conference on Disarmament and special representative of the president for the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, and Mark Fitzpatrick, acting deputy assistant secretary for nonproliferation

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