Vienna: A proposed resolution by Arab states criticizing Israel's widely-rumored atomic arsenal was narrowly defeated Friday at a gathering of the UN nuclear agency.
Following a lively debate at the International Atomic Energy Agency's annual general conference, the measure, supported by Iran, was defeated by 51 votes against and 43 in favor with 32 abstentions.
Israel is widely assumed to have nuclear weapons but has never acknowledged it and is not a signatory to the landmark Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).
The Jewish state is a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency but is not subject to IAEA inspections except for at a small research facility.
The resolution debated at the meeting of all 159 IAEA member states expressed "concern about Israeli nuclear capabilities and calls upon Israel to accede to the NPT and place all its nuclear facilities under comprehensive IAEA safeguards."
In 2009 the same resolution was narrowly approved by members of the IAEA and in 2010 it was defeated only after intensive lobbying efforts by Western countries.
In 2012 and in 2011 Arab states decided not to propose the resolution in order to encourage the creation of a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction.
These efforts, however, have so far come to nothing, with a hoped-for conference failing to take place in late 2012 as planned.
Iran is under intense international pressure because of suspicions that its nuclear activities, which have expanded greatly over the past decade, are aimed at developing the bomb. It has consistently denied that it is seeking a nuclear arms capability.
Oman's Ambassador Badr Mohamed Zaher Al-Hinai, talking on behalf of Arab states at the IAEA, said that the proposed resolution "could resuscitate" efforts toward a nuclear-free Middle East.
Attacking the "double standards" of Western countries, he called allegations that other Middle East countries were seeking nuclear weapons a "huge distortion of the facts."
Speaking for Israel, deputy ambassador Daniel Danieli said that the resolution amounted to "Israel-bashing" that "contributes to the politicization of the IAEA."
World powers agreed in 2010 to an Egyptian plan for an international meeting to lay the groundwork for creating a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction. But the United States, one of the big powers to co-sponsor the meeting, said late last year it would not take place as planned last December and did not suggest a new date.
Arab diplomats said they refrained from putting forward the resolution on Israel at earlier meetings to boost the chances of the Middle East conference but it had no effect.
"We have engaged seriously and constructively in the preparations (for the conference). The Israelis have been playing for time, delaying, we have never seen enough seriousness on their part," Ambassador Ramzy Ezzeldin Ramzy, head of the Arab League group at the IAEA, said.
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