Israel secured a diplomatic achievement at the annual meeting of the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) Friday in Vienna when the Arab states withdrew their proposal to discuss Israels nuclear capabilities.

With the support of the United States and other Western nations, Israel was active behind the scenes to torpedo the Arab initiative, and were ultimately successful. It would seem that one of the reasons that the Arab bloc withdrew their proposal was last years failure, when the conference denied their request to discuss the issue.

Open gallery view The nuclear reactor at Dimona. Credit: Reutuers

Despite this, the conference adopted a decision entitled, The Implementation of IAEA Supervision in the Middle East. Israel abstained from voting on this proposal as it did last year, as did the United Nations, Canada and a number of other nations.

Israel also voted against a clause in the proposal that calls on all states in the Middle East to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Israel is not a signatory to the treaty, and it has no intentions to become one. Most of the world believes that Israel has nuclear weapons.

