nuclear-news

UN calls on Israel to join the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty

UN Calls on Israel to Open Nuclear Facilities TIME By Associated Press Dec. 04, 2012 (UNITED NATIONS) — The U.N. General Assembly has overwhelmingly approved a resolution 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 Monday 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
U.S., 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….
Read more: http://world.time.com/2012/12/04/un-calls-on-israel-to-open-nuclear-facilities/#ixzz2EyERMtsl

December 13, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Israel, weapons and war