UN Nuclear Assembly Votes Down Arab Push Targeting Israel

VIENNA - Member states of the UN nuclear agency on Friday rejected an Iranian-backed Arab bid to single out Israel for criticism over its assumed atomic arsenal, in a diplomatic victory for Western powers that opposed the initiative.

The debate and vote at an annual meeting of the 159-nation International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) underlined divisions at a time when the United States and its allies are hoping for progress in a separate, decade-old nuclear dispute with Iran.

Arab states had submitted a non-binding resolution on Israel to the gathering in Vienna for the first time since 2010 to signal their frustration at the lack of movement in efforts to create a Middle East zone free of weapons of mass destruction.

Fifty-one countries voted against the text, which called on Israel to join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and 43 states for. Others abstained or were absent.

The United States said earlier that targeting its close ally would only hurt broader steps aimed at banning nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction in the tinderbox region.

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