Vienna: Arab states withdraw a draft resolution asking Israel to sign NPT
The Arab states yesterday withdrew a draft resolution submitted before the general Assembly of the International Agency for Atomic Energy IAAE, calling on Israel to sign "the non-proliferation of Nuclear weapons" and for allowing the UN to inspect Israel's nuclear program.
This was after the west's opposition to a "strong condemnation to Israel." However, the Arab states vowed to repeat the attempt next year.
On the other hand, the General Assembly agreed to a draft resolution approved by Egypt calling on all countries of the region to evacuate the Middle East from nuclear weapons. The resolution did not in particular single out Israel.
Israel did not sign the treaty and never officially admits of owning nuclear weapons. But experts of non- proliferation of nuclear weapons estimate that Israel owns between 100 to 200 nuclear bombs.
Last Wednesday, some 15 Arab states proposed a draft resolution to the General Assembly of the IAAE, which includes 137 member states, saying that Israel is the only nuclear power in the Middle East and it has to dismantle its nuclear weapons.
Despite the fact that the Arab states failed for 12 years successively in mobilizing enough support for the approval of the draft resolution, a diplomat said it is unfair to described withdrawing the draft resolutions as a failure. He added "they have achieved their objective which is reminding countries that this is a problem that should not be neglected."
Every and each year, the Arab states try to adopt similar resolutions. The last success goes back to 1991 when the "Agency of recording nuclear. notes " embarked on a decision imposed on Israel to subject its nuclear installations under its surveillance. Since 1987, the general assembly of the IAAE and the UN General Assembly reviewed 13 similar resolutions, which were all ignored by Israel.
Diplomats said that the Arab states were ready to pullout this draft resolution under the condition that the chairman of the conference, Japan's ambassador to the agency to issue a strong "official statement expressing concern over the Israeli nuclear program." The Japanese ambassador did not release "a presidential statement," rather confined to saying that the Israeli nuclear program will be debated at the agenda of the next general assembly.