Iran to propose ban on targeting nuclear sites

VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran will propose a ban on military attacks on nuclear facilities at a meeting of the United Nations nuclear watchdog next month, Iran's IAEA ambassador Ali Asghar Soltanieh said on Friday.

Soltanieh said a legally binding resolution was needed despite U.N. bans on such attacks because Israel had broken them in the past.

"The issue is prohibition of attacks and threats of attacks against all nuclear installations, during operation and during construction," Soltanieh said on the phone from Vienna.

"It is well known that this taboo has been broken in the past by the Zionist regime of Israel," he said.

Israel has not ruled out military action to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and threatening the Jewish state.

Israel and Western nations including the United States say Iran's nuclear program is aimed at making bombs. Iran says it is for power generation only and has refused to halt uranium enrichment despite three rounds of U.N. sanctions.

In 1981, an Israeli air strike destroyed Iraq's only nuclear reactor and in 2007 Israel bombed a site in Syria that U.S. intelligence officials said was a nuclear reactor under construction. Syria denies this.

Soltanieh said Iran would propose the ban at the IAEA's 150-nation general conference from September 14 in Vienna.

Asked if he was concerned about an Israeli attack against Iran, he said: "This is not an issue, this is ignorable, because nobody would dare to attack Iran."

The IAEA has passed several resolutions, the latest in 1990, banning "any armed attack on and threat against (peaceful) nuclear facilities." Soltanieh said they were toothless.

"One of the things that we have to follow up on is to work on ... legally binding instruments, which are lacking," he said.

Iran's move is the latest in a diplomatic offensive to try to turn the spotlight away from its nuclear program, Western diplomats said.

"Obviously this resolution is presented to further Iran's political agenda and not simply because of an honest concern about nuclear security," said one Western diplomat.

The IAEA's general conference will also discuss "Israel's nuclear capabilities" at the request of Arab countries, a regular item at the annual meeting.

Israel is widely understood to possess nuclear weapons but maintains a policy of ambiguity.

Western diplomats said Iran's proposal could lead to the sort of debate and divisive votes that crippled discussions at last year's conference.

"Unfortunately those issues will again overshadow the real work we have to do at the conference," the Western diplomat said. "I could imagine that there will be significant controversies again."

(Reporting by Boris Groendahl; Editing by Janet Lawrence)