5/10/08
The UN nuclear assembly on Saturday passed a resolution urging all Middle East nations to renounce aspirations to build nuclear bombs in a vote most Arabs boycotted over amendments they felt took pressure off Israel. The rare vote was 82-0 with 13 abstentions after days of wrangling between Israel and Western nations on one side of the spectrum and between Arab and Islamic states on the other, polarizing a body that normally operates on consensus. The decision at the annual assembly of the International Atomic Energy Agency was non-binding but highlighted deep tensions over Israel’s presumed nuclear might and avoiding of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
