Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Canadian Prime Minister Harper. Photo: Flash90.

After their meeting at the Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague this week, Israel’s Minister of Intelligence Dr. Yuval Steinitz and Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs John Baird announced the launch of a joint project to develop technology for identifying sources of nuclear terror attacks.

The technology identifies the origin of nuclear material, implicating the provider of these hazardous materials to terror groups. The development of such technologies are an imperative step in the international war on nuclear terror, Minister Steinitz explained.

“Due to terror threats in the Middle East and worldwide, developing technology to detect the source of a nuclear attack has become of the utmost significance. These detection abilities will serve as a deterrent for countries who might consider collaborating with terror groups using a nuclear bomb in a terror plot,” he said.

Minister Baird said, “the nuclear terror threat currently remains one of the most significant challenges to national security. The cooperation between Israel and Canada will aid Middle Eastern and other countries [in pursuing] terrorists who are involved in illegal terror related trade.”

This project will be executed as part of the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terror (GICNT), an international partnership of 85 nations and four observers who are committed to working to implement a set of shared nuclear security principles, of which Canada and Israel are members. The project, one of over 50 multilateral projects launched by the GICNT, will be funded by Canada.