VIENNA, Austria, Oct. 4, 2008
Israel Takes Indirect Heat Over Nukes
U.N. Conference Wants All Nations To Reveal Nuclear Activities; Israel Widely Believed To Have Nuclear Arms
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(AP / CBS)
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Interactive Mideast Conflict Events, key players and a history of the world's most unstable region.
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Interactive Nuclear Armed World The world's nuclear weapons powers, missile defense and a history of the nuclear weapons age.
But the Jewish state managed to evade being targeted by Islamic countries pushing for a vote to link it to nuclear proliferation in the Middle East.
Iran, Israel's most outspoken foe, spearheaded the verbal attack on the Jewish state, as it has done at past general conferences of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Israel is widely considered to have nuclear arms, but has a "no tell" policy on the issue.
Chief Iranian delegate Ali Ashgar Soltanieh said Israel's nuclear capabilities represent a "serious and continued threat to the security of neighboring and other states."
He took the United States and other Western backers of Israel to task for their "shameful silence" on what he said was the menace posed by Israel's atomic arsenal.
The meeting voted for a resolution urging all nations to open their nuclear activities to outside inspection and work toward the establishment of a Mideast nuclear weapons free zone. With Israel the only country in the region considered to have atomic arms, passage of the resolution constituted indirect criticism of the Jewish state.
The resolution called on all nations in the Middle East "not to develop, test or otherwise acquire nuclear weapons," and urged nuclear weapons states to "refrain from any action" hindering the establishment of a Mideast zone free of nuclear weapons.
But U.S. and the European Union managed to block an effort by Muslim nations and their supporters to submit a resolution more directly critical of Israel and its "nuclear capabilities."
Although last year's meeting followed a similar pattern, the votes for and against the two motions reflected shifting dynamics on the issues.
On Saturday, delegations had so far voted 82-0 for establishing the Mideast nuclear weapons free zone, with Israel, Syria and the U.S. among those abstaining. Last year it was 53 in favor, the U.S. and Israel against, and 47 abstentions.
Part of the shift reflected Israel's success in pushing for the resolution to include language that was indirectly critical of Iran and Syria - two nations under IAEA review for possibly hiding undeclared nuclear activities.
The fact that the second motion more directly critical of Israel was only narrowly defeated indicated support for the Islamic nations was growing, particularly among developing countries. Of those present at the meeting, 46 nations voted against the motion, 43 voted for it, and seven abstained.
The issue of establishing a Mideast nuclear weapons free zone has been on the IAEA conference agenda for 16 years, though the vote Saturday was only the third on the topic.
The meeting usually tries for consensus, and the balloting reflected increased politicization over the Middle East dispute and, more recently, concerns about Iran's nuclear ambitions.
Muslim nations consider Israel the region's main nuclear threat. The United States and its allies see Iran's defiance of the U.N. Security Council in its development of technology that could be used to make the bomb as the greatest menace to Middle East peace. Iran says it wants to perfect the technology - uranium enrichment - not to make the fissile core of nuclear warheads but for fuel to generate power.
Iran was not formally on the agenda of the six-day meeting, which was scheduled to end later Saturday. But concerns about its nuclear defiance figured prominently in comments from a substantial number of Western delegations - something Soltanieh was critical of.
"Iran is not the issue of this conference," he told The Associated Press, adding that "Israel is the only case" in the context of a proliferation danger in the Mideast.
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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LOL..
Posted by StopSocialis
yes thats right .. thats why zionism will be destroyed !
Jesus said unto Jews, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.
Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him.- John 8
II Chronicles 36:16 states: "But Jews mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against israelites till there was no remedy".
Matt 23:37- "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often I would have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!"
"Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people, producing the fruit of it. Matthew 21:43
New York gangs = problems. Problems = Irish. (Tammany Hall)
Northern Ireland = problems. Problems = Catholics.
(Ian Paisley)
Alternate:
Nothern Ireland = problems. Problems = the IRA. The IRA is funded by Irish Americans.
Offensive? Yep.
Simplistic? Yep.
Incorrect? Yep.
So, Jerry, I recommend you just go have another drink and kill off a few more brain cells. Just please do us all a favor and forget to vote.
Nice to read all these .... reasonable .... comments suggesting a final solution for the Jews.
I suppose the free democracies of Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, et al should be their examples on how to treat people of different creeds and faith.
How laughable.
No one country has as many direct enemies, in such close proximity, with such relative strength and wealth, as Israel.
According to your mindset, America should throw away our entire arsenal and let Iran inherit them since the Jews cause all the problems.
And contrary to the inference in the article, nuclear weapons are NOT defensive.
Over the past 30 years we have given Israel $125,000 per person, while our own people cannot find work, many struggling to eat.
As for defending any other country before our own is made whole, you can go for it, but their problems are not mine, I am more concerned with fixing our own.
theres a LOT of books saying a lot of crapp. So what?
Tell it to your christian-nutcase listserv or something.
"I care not" you say.. Interesting.. Jesus certainly would disagree with that, considering the sermon on the mount. Or have you read it??
Hypocrite. Wishing ill on others is NOT christian, and neither are you.
Posted by JesusFace
By that standard, wouldn''t the same apply to Israel, a Jewish state by choice?
- by jesusface October 4, 2008 10:18 PM EDT
- I say bomb Iran and *** them! Religion has no place in politics. *** Iran!
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