Iran: Ban all strikes on nuclear facilities

August 13, 2009

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Iran will propose that the United Nations nuclear watchdog ban all pre-emptive military strikes on nuclear sites.

Iran told The Associated Press, which first reported the prospective proposal Wednesday, that the proposal is not related to the possibility of an Israeli military strike on its nuclear installations.

The AP quoted Iranian diplomats as saying it will seek support from the 150-nation International Atomic Energy Agency during its September general conference for a generally worded statement prohibiting attacks on nuclear installations anywhere in the world.

"We are not worried about Israel," Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's chief envoy to the IAEA, told the AP. "Nobody dares to do anything against Iran."

Israel has attacked nuclear sites in the past: In 1981 it destroyed Iraq's Osirak reactor, and in 2006 it attacked a nascent Syrian reactor.

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