The Obama administration is asking Arab states to withdraw a measure calling on Israel to join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The proposal would build on the non-binding measure approved at an assembly meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency last year. Israel is the only nation in the Middle East with nuclear weapons, but the country has never officially acknowledged its program. By shunning the forty-year-old Non-Proliferation Treaty, Israel has not had to reject atomic arms or allow the IAEA to probe all of its nuclear sites. On Monday, the US ambassador to the IAEA, Glyn Davies, defended Israel’s rejection of the NPT.

Glyn Davies: “Israel, remember, was an original member of the IAEA. They’ve always been in compliance with their obligations to the agency. So I think the challenge, the problem, that’s posed by the arguments that are being made by the Arab side is that they’re trying to expand the IAEA’s mandate in a way that would take it beyond its core functions. Issues of whether or not a sovereign state has chosen to associate itself with a treaty is outside the scope of the IAEA.”

Davies also went on to criticize Iran in light of a recent IAEA report accusing Iran of hindering nuclear inspections. The IAEA says it’s been unable to confirm whether all of Iran’s nuclear activities are for peaceful purposes. Davies called Iran’s barring of two inspectors an “escalation.”

Glyn Davies: “We believe a country has rejected inspectors based on the report that was issued by the IAEA, and that is very troubling, very concerning. It’s a real escalation, I think, in the effort by Iran to stonewall and stiff-arm the IAEA’s activities.”