A US research center on nuclear weapons has urged President-elect Barack Obama to press Israel to halt production of its nuclear weapons.
The Institute for Science and International Security, headed by David Albright, one the world's top experts on nuclear weapons and the prevention of nuclear proliferation, recently released a report over the danger of producing nuclear weapons in the Middle East.
The report said Barak Obama should make a key priority of halting Israeli nuclear activities as a measure to save the Middle East from the danger of nuclear bombs.
"The Obama administration should make a key priority of persuading Israel to join the negotiations for a universal, verified treaty that bans the production of plutonium and highly enriched uranium for nuclear explosives, commonly called the Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty (FMCT)," Ha'aretz quoted the report.
"As an interim step, the United States should press Israel to suspend any production of fissile material for nuclear weapons. Toward this goal, the United States should change its relatively new policy of seeking a cutoff treaty that does not include verification. The Bush administration's rejection of the long-standing US policy of requiring verification was a mistake that the incoming administration needs to rectify."
In September, testimony of a former Dimona employee, nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu, revealed that an Israeli factory beneath the Negev desert has been producing atomic warheads for the past 20 years.
Vanunu's testimony and pictures, confirmed that Israel has the world's sixth-largest stockpile of nuclear weapons, including hundreds of nuclear warheads.
Israel is reportedly the only nuclear-armed country in the Middle East which has refused to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty, and bars inspections of its nuclear facilities.
