Qatar called for all Israeli nuclear facilities to be brought under the regulation of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and for Israel to sign the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) as a non-nuclear state during a session of the IAEA in Vienna on Saturday.
Qatar Calls for Bringing All Israeli Nuclear Facilities Under IAEA SafeguardsRead More: https://t.co/H06f6PRNAr#MOFAQatar pic.twitter.com/cLNBL5TJki
— Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Qatar (@MofaQatar_EN) March 8, 2025
Qatar's Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office and International Organizations in Vienna, Jassim Yacoup Al-Hammadi, before the session of the IAEA Board of Governors in Vienna, which addressed the situation in Gaza, the West Bank, and Israel's nuclear capabilities.
Hammadi noted that some of the resolutions within the treaty explicitly urged Israel to join the NPT as a non-nuclear state.
Israel does not publicly acknowledge possessing nuclear weapons and has not signed the NPT.
A non-signatory
The NPT is the primary regulator of nuclear weapons in International Law and was created in the wake of the increasing nuclearisation of the world in the 1960s and initial treaties blocking nuclear testing in 1963.
The treaty divides the world into nuclear-weapon states and non-nuclear-weapon states. Nuclear states are responsible for preventing the creation or proliferation of nuclear weapons among non-nuclear states, while non-nuclear states are required to prevent the creation or proliferation in their own states.
Non-nuclear states are required to register all nuclear facilities with the IAEA. Israel is not a signatory to the treaty and thus has not registered itself in either category.
Israel initially supported the NPT in 1968; however, it withdrew its support following the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, which caused the treaty to be delayed.
The only other countries not party to the treaty are India, Pakistan, North Korea, and South Sudan, with North Korea being the only one to have signed and then withdrawn.
Prior to the creation of the NPT, Israel had been accused of developing nuclear weapons in collaboration with France.
The development is reported to have caused a rift between then-prime minister David Ben-Gurion and then-US President John F. Kennedy, which came to a head just before Kennedy was assassinated in 1963.
By the time the NPT was ready, CIA reports indicated that they believed Israel was very close to having nuclear weapons. By 1974, a New York Times article claimed the CIA was certain that Israel had developed nuclear weapons.
By the mid-1980s, Mordechai Vanunu, a former worker at the alleged nuclear facility in Dimona, leaked details of the site and alleged nuclear weapons to the press.
Vanunu would later be arrested and sentenced to 18 years imprisonment for treason and espionage. Vanunu was released in 2004 after completing his sentence.