Iran and Israel trade harsh words

Israel accused Iran of lying on Friday, while Tehran challenged the international community to send inspectors for a probe of its arch-rival’s nuclear capabilities, in an unusually bitter and rare direct confrontation.

UN officials at a 148-nation meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency said they had no memory of the two hostile nations ever engaging each other directly at previous meetings and noted that development – and the unusually harsh tone of their statements – in part reflected Middle East tensions.

The exchange came after chief Iranian delegate Ail Asghar Soltanieh – like Arab delegates before him – said that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had acknowledged earlier this year that his country possessed nuclear weapons - something that Israel says Olmert never did.

Soltanieh also criticised “the continuous silence of the US, vis a vis the atrocities, aggression, bloodshed and violations of more than 30 resolutions of the United Nations”.

That, he said, is “shameful and a dark point in the history of the United Nations, and the IAEA and the modern century at large”.

In turn, Israeli delegate Israel Michaeli alluded to claims that Olmert acknowledged Israel’s nuclear weapons, saying, some previous speakers “continued to lie.”

“Those who call for the elimination of Israel” have no right to criticise “Israeli policies aimed at defending Israel’s very existence,” said Michaeli.

Soltanieh in response challenged the IAEA to send its inspectors into the country “to verify who is telling the truth”.

The harsh Iranian and Arab words reflected frustration on their part after their efforts to formally submit a resolution to the conference on “Israel Nuclear Capabilities and Threat” was blocked by the EU, the United States and other Western nations.