IAEA calls for N-free zone in ME

VIENNA, Sept 20: The UN atomic agency adopted a non-binding resolution on a nuclear weapons-free-zone in the Middle East with Israel and the US voting against and EU states except Ireland abstaining.

The lack of consensus weakened the impact of the measure, at a general conference of the UN watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), diplomats said.

The Egyptian-sponsored resolution was backed by 53 votes, with two against and 47 abstentions.

The IAEA has a tradition of adopting resolutions by consensus, but the Middle East issue has become highly politicised, even though Israel backs a nuclear weapons-free-zone (NWFZ) within the framework of a Middle East peace settlement.Some western and non-aligned diplomats said the problem this year was that Iran was agitating behind the scenes for a showdown over Israel, in order to distract from its own nuclear programme.

One western diplomat said the large abstention vote, which included Australia, Canada, Georgia, Ghana and Zambia, “shows that the world is hanging together on these matters.”But the Iranian speaker blasted the vote as putting into question the views of “some members that full-scope safeguards” need be complemented by wider inspection measures, as Israel, which has not signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) seemed to be exempt from this.

An Irish diplomat said his country had voted for the text since Ireland favoured a NWFZ in the Middle East. “It’s as simple as that,” the diplomat said.

The general conference approves broad policy lines for the 144-member IAEA, the verification arm of the NPT. But the IAEA’s 35-nation board of governors makes decisions for the agency on how policy is implemented.

The contested resolution contained two new paragraphs that were added to past texts and which Israel felt expanded the scope of the resolution too much, diplomats said.The first called on “all states of the region, pending the establishment of the zone, not to develop, produce, test or otherwise acquire nuclear weapons or permit the stationing on their territories ... of nuclear weapons.”