Word: reactors
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Kirkpatrick's hesitancy in the Security Council reflected the ambivalent approach of the Reagan Administration toward the problem of censuring Israel for the bombing raid on Iraq's Tammuz nuclear reactor. Eloquently recalling the "strength of U.S. ties and commitment to Israel and the warmth of our feelings," Kirkpatrick admitted that the draft was "not a perfect resolution." But she added that Washington had been "shocked" by the Israelis' launching a raid before peaceful approaches had been exhausted. Replied Israeli Ambassador Yehuda Blum: "Israel unreservedly rejects the biased and one-sided resolution just adopted by the council...
...Foreign Minister Saadoun Hammadi during three days of intense negotiations. Iraq had wanted to include a call for sanctions against Israel, but the U.S. made it clear that it would use its veto if they were mentioned. Instead, the approved resolution "strongly condemns" Israel for its raid on the reactor and urges it to pay damages to Iraq, which was "entitled to appropriate redress for the destruction it has suffered." There is nothing that could compel Israel to make such restitution, however, and Blum had already told the council that his government would not pay Iraq "a brass farthing...
...resolution also in effect rejected Israel's rationale that it had destroyed the reactor because the government had learned that the Iraqis were about to use it to make atomic bombs to attack Israel. The text pointed out that Iraq had accepted the International Atomic Energy Agency's inspection safeguards and urged Israel to open its own nuclear facilities to IAEA inspectors. Unlike Iraq, Israel has not signed the nuclear nonproliferation treaty, which would require it to allow visits by the IAEA. Israel argues that the treaty is meaningless unless peace is established in the Middle East...
...Saudis again. As usual, Habib was tight-lipped about his negotiations, but Begin announced that Israel was determined to destroy the missiles if diplomacy did not remove them, and he warned pointedly that he would not wait forever. One of the most serious effects of the raid on the reactor appeared to be on Saudi efforts to fashion an Arab initiative to ease Lebanese tensions. Last week the Saudis dismissed Habib's mission as "irrelevant" and castigated the U.S. for its support or Israel...
...raid, Begin had been a fount of information-and astonishing misinformation. Even the chief of MOSSAD, Israel's intelligence agency, felt constrained to lament the "devil's dance of public statements and counterstatements." Begin incorrectly said that there was a secret chamber for making bombs beneath the reactor, falsely quoted a Baghdad newspaper to the effect that the reactor was to be used "against the Zionist enemy," and claimed that the reactor would soon become operational, a view contradicted even by some senior Israeli military officials...