ELECTIONS '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ARCHIVES

India, Israel and Pak should sign CTBT: Israeli envoy

India, Israel and Pakistan should sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty before September 1999, for keeping peace and stability in the region, Israeli Ambassador to India Yehoyada Haim has said.

Talking to the media in Gangtok last evening, Haim warned that with both India and Pakistan proving their nuclear capability and considering Israel's nuclear potential, the race for attaining the atomic bomb in West Asia had intensified.

''We fear that there will be certain nuclear proliferation in west Asia. Iran and Iraq are ready to pay any amount of money to buy knowhow to make the Islamic atom bomb.

''They tried to get it from the erstwhile Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and now they are trying with the Chinese. In fact, they are so desperate that they will try to get it from anywhere. We fear that once the atomic weapon comes in the hands of these fundamentalists, then these countries will threaten the very existence of Israel,'' he said.

He maintained that the fundamentalists would not hesitate to sell the bomb to any of 'our neighbours'. ''Even today there are countries in the region which think destroying Israel will solve all the region's problems. The weapon is bound to come to the region, with Iran competing with Pakistan for the leadership of the Islamic world,'' he said.

Apprehending that Pakistan might 'sell out' to the Islamic states, the Israeli ambassador was confident that India would be 'very careful.'

UNI

Tell us what you think of this report