UN calls on Israel to open nuclear facilities to inspection

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The UN General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution Monday calling on Israel to quickly open its nuclear program for inspection and backing a high-level conference to ban nuclear weapons from the Middle East which was just canceled.

All the Arab nations and Iran had planned to attend the conference in mid-December in Helsinki, Finland, but the United States announced on Nov. 23 that it wouldn’t take place, citing political turmoil in the region and Iran’s defiant stance on nonproliferation. Iran and some Arab nations countered that the real reason for the cancellation was Israel’s refusal to attend.

The resolution, approved by a vote of 174-6 with 6 abstentions, calls on Israel to join the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty “without further delay” and open its nuclear facilities to inspection by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Those voting “no” were Israel, the US, Canada, Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Palau.

Resolutions adopted by the 193-member General Assembly are not legally binding but they do reflect world opinion and carry moral and political weight.

Israel refuses to confirm or deny it has nuclear bombs though it is widely believed to have a nuclear arsenal. It has refused to join the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, or NPT, along with three nuclear weapon states — India, Pakistan and North Korea.

The Arab proposal to create a weapons-of-mass-destruction-free zone in the Mideast, and to pressure Israel to give up its undeclared arsenal of perhaps 80 nuclear warheads, was endorsed at an NPT conference in 1995 but never acted on. In 2010, the 189 parties to the 1970 treaty called for convening a conference in 2012 on the establishment of a WMD-free zone in the Middle East.

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The conference’s main sponsors are the US, Russia and Britain. British Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt has said it is being postponed, not cancelled.

While the United States voted against the resolution, it voted in favor of two paragraphs in it that were put to separate votes. Both support universal adherence to the NPT, and call on those countries that aren’t parties to ratify it “at the earliest date.” The only “no” votes on those paragraphs were Israel and India.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/un-calls-on-israel-to-open-nuclear-facilities/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

[Usui Takumi 1,562]

What other countries allow inspection? I know for awhile the US and Russia were negotiating to allow each other to inspect the other.

Edit. I notice the US allows inspections of its facilities but also has an exclusion if it threatens national defense.

Edited December 5, 2012 by Sousuke

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

What other countries allow inspection? I know for awhile the US and Russia were negotiating to allow each other to inspect the other.

Edit. I notice the US allows inspections of its facilities but also has an exclusion if it threatens national defense.

Libya and South Africa, did, for two.