Israel terms resolution hypocrisy NPT members call for N-free Mideast
UNITED NATIONS, May 29: The 189 member countries of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty on Friday adopted a detailed plan of small steps down a long road towards nuclear disarmament, including a sharply debated proposal to move towards banning doomsday arms from the Middle East.
The 28-page final declaration was approved by consensus on the last day of the month-long conference, convened every five years to review and advance the objectives of the 40-year-old NPT.
Israel denounced the resolution as hypocritical and said it would refuse to take part in a conference on the subject.
Israel said the resolution singled out the Jewish state and failed to mention Irans nuclear ambitions.
This resolution is deeply flawed and hypocritical. It ignores the realities of the Middle East and the real threats facing the region and the entire world, said a statement released in Toronto by the Israeli government, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Canada.
Under its action plan, the five recognised nuclear-weapon states the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France commit to speed up arms reductions, take other steps to diminish the importance of atomic weapons, and report back on progress by 2014.
The final document also calls for convening a conference in 2012 on the establishment of a Middle East zone free of nuclear weapons and all other weapons of mass destruction.
This Arab idea of a WMDfree zone is designed to pressure Israel to give up its undeclared nuclear arsenal. Despite the decision here, US officials questioned whether Israel could be persuaded to attend the conference.
US National Security Adviser Gen James Jones said in a statement late on Friday that th
e US has serious reservations about the conference and deplores the decision to single out Israel in the Mideast section of the document. As a cosponsor of the 2012 conference, he said the United States will ensure that it will only take place if and when all countries feel confident that they can attend.
Because of (the) gratuitous way that Israel has been singled out, the prospect for a conference in 2012 that involves all key states in the region is now in doubt, Jones said.
Iran and Syria had dissented loudly on various points in the final hours, but no objections were raised in the concluding session. After the declarations approval, Irans chief delegate Ali Asghar Soltanieh joined with the others in hearty applausebeneath the UN General Assembly halls soaring dome.
All eyes the world over are watching us, the conference president, Libran Cabactulan of the Philippines, said before gaveling the final document into the record.
The decision was an important step forward towards the realisation of the goals and objectives of the treaty, Egypts Maged Abedelaziz said afterward, speaking for the 118-nation Non-Aligned Movement of mainly developing countries.
The final document this conference adopted today advances President Obamas vision of a world without nuclear weapons, US UnderSecretary of State Ellen Tauscher told the assembled delegates.
Under the 1970 non-proliferation treaty, nations without nuclear weapons committed not to acquire them; those with them committed to move toward their elimination; and all endorsed everyones right to develop peaceful nuclear energy.
The last NPT conference, in 2005, failed to adopt a consensus declaration, in part because former US president George W. Bush had withdrawn US backing for such non-proliferation steps as ratifying the treaty banning all nuclear tests.
President Barack Obamas support for an array of armscontrol measures improved the cooperative atmosphere at the 2010 conference. Agencies
Dawn ePaper
