KEY POINTS:
Arab and other Islamic nations, targeting Israel's undeclared nuclear arsenal, pushed through a United Nation atomic watchdog resolution yesterday calling on all Middle East nations to renounce atomic weapons.
The unusual vote was 53-2 but with 47 abstentions by Western and developing states, highlighting reservations that the move politicised the International Atomic Energy Agency's work.
The decision was non-binding but symbolised tensions over Israel's presumed nuclear might and shunning of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Israel is assumed to have the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal, though it has never confirmed or denied it.
A similar resolution urging all Middle East nations to adopt IAEA safeguards on nuclear work passed overwhelmingly at last year's IAEA general assembly, with only Israel and top ally the United States opposed.
Egypt reintroduced the resolution this year seeking full consensus but attached two new clauses that prompted Israel to demand a vote and European, other Western and non-aligned developing nations to abstain.
- Reuters
