Arab states intend to keep Israel's nuclear progam on the agenda of the International Atomic Energy Agency's annual conference next week, despite United States and European Union concerns that such a move would jeopardise Middle East peace talks and the 2012 conference on a nuclear free Middle East. A proposed motion calls for the Jewish state to be more transparent and to join the Non Proliferation Treaty.
Agence France Presse reports that Sudan's IAEA ambassador told a closed-door session of the agency's 35-member board of governors on Thursday that the United Nations watchdog, which is investigating both Iran and Syria for alleged illicit nuclear activity, used "double standards" when dealing with Israel and a recent report by agency chief Yukiya Amano on the matter was "weak and disappointing", explaining that the report was "devoid of any substance and not up to the typical level of the agency's reporting".