http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/09/2009918173136830771.html

The UN nuclear assembly has called for Israel to open its nuclear facilities to UN inspection and sign up to the non-proliferation treaty.

The resolution, which was passed narrowly on Friday, marked a surprise victory for Arab states and others who have pushed for the move for the last 18 years.

The non-binding resolution voiced concern about "Israeli nuclear capabilities" and urged the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN's nuclear watchdog, to tackle the issue.

Israel vowed it would not co-operate, saying the measure singled it out while many of its neighbours remained hostile to its existence.

"Israel will not co-operate in any matter with this resolution which is only aiming at reinforcing political hostilities and lines of division in the Middle East region," said David Danieli, the chief Israeli delegate.

'Glorious moment'

Israel is one of only three countries worldwide - along with India and Pakistan - outside the non-proliferation treaty (NPT) and is widely assumed to have the Middle East's only atomic arsenal.

It has never confirmed nor denied that it has nuclear weapons.

Ali Asghar Soltanieh, the Iranian ambassador, whose country's disputed nuclear programme is under IAEA investigation, said the vote was a "glorious moment" and "a triumph for the oppressed nation of Palestine".

Speaking later to Al Jazeera, Soltanieh said: "All like-minded, peace-loving countries have always called for a resolution to take measures to push Israel to stop their nuclear weapon programme and adhere to the NPT and put every nuclear installation under the IAEA.

"All countries in the Middle East are party to the NPT - the only non-party is Israel ... the resolution was addressed to the only non-participatory [state] in the Middle East.

Tehran was one of the 21 countries sponsoring the measure.

Iran absorbed a setback later when its bid to make legally binding a 1991 resolution banning attacks on nuclear sites failed to win a consensus from the bloc of Non-Aligned Movement developing nations and so was not brought up for a vote.

UN Security Council members Russia and China backed the Israel resolution, passed by a 49-45 margin by the IAEA's annual member states gathering. There were 16 abstentions.

Western states said it was unfair and counterproductive to isolate one member state and that an IAEA resolution passed on Thursday, which urged all Middle East nations including Israel to foreswear atomic bombs, made Friday's proposal unnecessary.

Western backing

Before the vote, Glyn Davies, the US ambassador, said the resolution was "redundant ... such an approach is highly politicised and does not address the complexities at play regarding crucial nuclear-related issues in the Middle East".

Canada tried to block a vote on the floor with a "no-action motion", a procedural manoeuvre that prevailed in 2007 and 2008, but lost by an eight-vote margin.

Diplomats from the non-aligned movement of developing nations said times had changed with the advent of the US administration of Barack Obama, the US president.

"People and countries are bolder now, willing to call a spade a spade. You cannot hide or ignore the truth, the double standards, of Israel's nuclear capability forever," the Reuters news agency quoted one diplomat as saying.

"The new US administration has certainly helped this thinking with its commitment to universal nuclear disarmament and nuclear weapons-free zones."

The non-binding measure was last voted on in 1991, when IAEA membership was much smaller, and passed by 39-31.

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I think Iran's cooperation should be linked to Israel's cooperation. Raise the bar.

I think we should stop letting anyone in from IAEA as long as Israel doesn't sign the NPT. Futhermore, every inspection of our sites should be met by commitment from Israel to allow similar inspections.

 

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"I think Iran's cooperation should be linked to Israel's cooperation. Raise the bar.

I think we should stop letting anyone in from IAEA as long as Israel doesn't sign the NPT. Futhermore, every inspection of our sites should be met by commitment from Israel to allow similar inspections. "

That is the wisest thing that an Iranian WAFF member has said since Mehran (and Chossmeli) were around.

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"Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it."
George Bernard Shaw

The national security adviser for former President Jimmy Carter, Zbigniew Brzezinski, gave an interview to The Daily Beast in which he suggested President Obama should make it clear to Israel that if they attempt to attack Iran's nuclear weapons sites the U.S. Air Force will stop them.

"We are not exactly impotent little babies," Brzezinski said. "They have to fly over our airspace in Iraq. Are we just going to sit there and watch? ... We have to be serious about denying them that right. That means a denial where you arent just saying it. If they fly over, you go up and confront them. They have the choice of turning back or not. No one wishes for this but it could be a 'Liberty' in reverse."

The USS Liberty was a U.S. Navy technical research ship that the Israeli Air Force mistakenly attacked during the Six Day War in 1967.

Brzezinski endorsed then-Sen. Obama's presidential campaign in August 2007, which at the time was portrayed in the media as a boost to Obama's foreign policy cred. The Washington Post reported: "Barack Obama, combating the perception that he is too young and inexperienced to handle a dangerous world, got a boost yesterday from a paragon of foreign policy eminence, Zbigniew Brzezinski."

Brzezinski was never an official campaign adviser, but Republicans jumped on the endorsement to push the meme that Obama wouldn't be a friend to Israel, as Brzezinski's views of Israel attracted criticism from some quarters in the American Jewish community.

Brzezinski is not an adviser to the campaign, former Ambassador Dennis Ross, then a senior adviser on Middle East affairs to the Obama campaign, said at the time. There is a lot of disinformation that is being pushed, but he is not an adviser to the campaign. Brzezinski came out and supported Obama early because of the war in Iraq. A year or so ago they talked a couple of times. Thats the extent of it, and Sen. Obama has made it clear that on other Middle Eastern issues, Brzezinski is not who he looks to. They dont have the same views.

Brzezinski plays no role in the Obama administration; the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Brzezinski's comments come within the same week that the White House distanced itself from comments made by former President Carter, who said he thinks "an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man."

-jpt

UPDATE: Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev told CNN that Israeli President Shimon Peres assured him that Israel would not attack Iran.

"This is the worst thing that one can imagine," Medvedev said. "What would happen afterwards? A humanitarian catastrophe, a huge number of refugees. And Iran would want revenge, and not only over Israel, but over other countries as well. The events in the region would become completely unpredictable. I think the scope of such a disaster would not be comparable to anything. Therefore, before taking the decision to launch any attacks, you need to think the situation through. It would be the most irrational way to deal with the situation. But my Israeli colleagues told me they do not plan to do that. And I trust them.`

September 20, 2009 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (134)

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