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Egypt will back diplomacy against Iran as long as it does not use double standards in handling nuclear issue in Mideast.
CAIRO - Egypt supports international efforts aimed at preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said on Wednesday.

But he also warned against taking military action against Tehran, which is accused by the US of wanting to develop the bomb. Iran insists that its nuclear programme is peaceful.

“Egypt supports international efforts to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons,” Abul Gheit said, backing an international diplomatic solution to Iran’s disputed programme.

His statement was read out by ministry official Wafa Bassim to a foreign relations council meeting in Cairo.

Abul Gheit said that Egypt supports every country’s right to use nuclear energy peacefully. Egypt last year announced the planned resumption of its own nuclear energy programme.

In apparent reference to Israel, the region’s only nuclear-armed state, Abul Gheit said Egypt would support diplomacy against Iran as long as it “does not use double standards in handling the nuclear issue in the Middle East.”

Tehran has long defied UN demands to halt uranium enrichment, and it is under sanctions targeting individuals and institutions involved in its nuclear project.

Uranium enrichment lies at the centre of fears about Iran’s nuclear ambitions because the process can be used to make the fissile core of an atom bomb.

Iran, OPEC’s second largest oil exporter, insists that it only wants to enrich uranium to make nuclear fuel to meet the growing energy demands of its population.

Tehran has not responded to a proposal by world powers offering incentives including help with peaceful nuclear technology and a light water reactor in return for suspending enrichment.

IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei had recently suggested that nuclear weapons states bore some blame for other countries seeking such arms, because they are modernizing arsenals rather than scrapping them.

The US, France and Britain are three nuclear weapons states that have ratified the Nonproliferation Treaty.

“How can I go with a straight face to the non-nuclear-weapon states and tell them nuclear weapons are no good for you, while the weapon states continue to modernize and to say ‘we absolutely need nuclear weapons,’” ElBaradei said.

Israel is the only country in the Middle Ease that actually has nuclear weapons.

Observers say due the strong Jewish and pro-Israel lobbies in the US and some European countries, these countries have taken a hypocritical stance in relation to nuclear issues in the region