UN, Arab Experts call on Iraq to possess peaceful nuclear reactors:

ARBIL / IraqiNews.com: A prominent UN nuclear expert has called on Iraq to “possess peaceful nuclear reactors, especially that its neighbors had possesses such reactors,” saying that the Iranian reactors “don’t represent danger” against Arab countries. “The Arab states are striving to possess nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, especially to generate electric power,” Assistant Director-General of the UN Nuclear Energy Agency, Warner Borkart, told IraqiNews.com news agency on Thursday, adding that the UAE had “concluded a contract for US$20 billions (b), being the first Arab state using a nuclear reactor for peaceful purposes, whilst Jordan and Egypt have been trying to obtain such nuclear reactors.” The UN Expert had expressed hope that “Iraq would possess peaceful nuclear reactors, expand and develop them soon, especially that its neighboring states are working in this respect.” U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden said on Wednesday that the United Nations Security Council decided to cancel all sanctions imposed on Iraq after invading Kuwait in 1990, including its programs for using the nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. The council also voted to return control of Iraq’s oil and natural gas revenue to the government on June 30, 2011, and to terminate all remaining activities of the oil-for-food program which ran from 1996-2003 and helped ordinary Iraqis cope with sanctions. On his part, the Chairman of the Expert in the Egyptian Nuclear Energy Commission, Dr. Abul-Shafi Ibrahim Rajab, told IraqiNews.com news agency that “the Arab states need to enter in the field of nuclear technology, to exploit it to overcome the difficult circumstances they suffer from, such as water scarecity and the efforts to increase vegetarian and animal resources. “The Arab states possess human, financial and natural resoueces to make use of nuclear energy, provided they take political decisions in this respect,” Dr. Rajab said. In Jordan, the Director of Researches in the Jordanian Nuclear Energy Commission, Dr. Mahmoud al-Kahila, told IraqiNews.com that his country “suffers from a major shortage in energy resoueces, due to their high costs and shortage of water resources in the Region,” pointing out that the use of nuclear energy would be useful for the Region.” SKH 1