VIENNA: The UN nuclear assembly voted on Friday to urge Israel to accede to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and place all atomic sites under UN inspections, in a surprise victory for Arab states.
The resolution, passed narrowly for the first time in nearly two decades, expressed concern about “Israeli nuclear capabilities” and called on International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed El-Baradei to work on the issue.
The Middle East resolution, sponsored by Arab states, was backed by 49 votes to 45 against in a floor vote at the IAEA’s annual member states conference. The vote split along Western and developing-nation lines. There were 16 abstentions.
Iranian Ambassador Ali Asghar Soltanieh told reporters the passage of the resolution was “very good news and a triumph for the oppressed nation of Palestine.” Russia and China backed the resolution.
Israel is one of only three countries worldwide along with India and Pakistan outside the nuclear NPT and is widely assumed to have the Middle East’s only nuclear arsenal, though it has never confirmed or denied it.
“The delegation of Israel deplores this resolution,” David Danieli, deputy director of Israel’s atomic energy commission, told the chamber after the vote.
“Israel will not cooperate in any matter with this resolution which is only aiming at reinforcing political hostilities and lines of division in the Middle East region.”
The measure was last voted on in 1991 when it passed by 39-31 with 13 abstentions when IAEA membership was much smaller.
Diplomats pointed to the increased number of abstentions — from countries ranging from India to Argentina and Nigeria as an important factor in the resolution’s adoption. Before the vote, US Ambassador Glyn Davies said the resolution was “redundant ... Such an approach is highly politicized and does not address the complexities at play regarding crucial nuclear-related issues in the Middle East.”
Calling the resolution “unbalanced,” Canada tried to block a vote on the floor with a “no-action motion.” But the procedural maneuver lost by an eight-vote margin. The same motion prevailed in 2007 and 2008s.
A senior diplomat from the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) of developing nations said times had changed.
“People and countries are bolder now, willing to call a spade a spade. You cannot hide or ignore the truth, the double standard, of Israel’s nuclear capability forever,” he said.
“The new US (Obama) administration has certainly helped this thinking with its commitment to universal nuclear disarmament and nuclear weapons-free zones,” they said.
Meanwhile, US envoy George Mitchell on Friday failed to secure a key deal on Jewish settlements aimed at paving the way for a resumption of Middle East peace negotiations. The former senator spent the day shuttling between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, after meeting both leaders earlier this week.
Abbas told Mitchell that “the issue of a settlement halt is not up for compromise,” Palestinian official Saeb Erekat said.
An Israeli official said after Mitchell met Netanyahu that Israel might freeze settlements in the West Bank for longer than the six months it previously suggested, but not for as long as a year. “Israel will agree to extend the freeze beyond six months — possibly nine months, but less than a year,” the official told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
