from: http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk, 18.9.2009
The general conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has passed a resolution condemning Israel over its secretive nuclear weapons programme for the first time since 1991.
The IAEA called on Tel Aviv to accede to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and to put its entire nuclear programme under IAEA inspections.
Israel is the only country in the Middle East that is not a signatory to the NPT and therefore accepts only limited IAEA inspections.
The text, sponsored by Arab countries, was adopted with the votes of 49 mostly developing states.
Forty-five countries voted against the resolution and these included European Union members and the United States.
Of the permanent UN security council, China and Russia backed the text that also “expresses concern about the Israeli nuclear capabilities.”
Tel Aviv is believed to have about 200 nuclear warheads in its arsenal, but it neither confirms nor denies its military nuclear capacity as a matter of national policy.
n The IAEA reiterated on Thursday that it had no concrete proof that there is or has ever been a nuclear weapons programme in Iran.
The United Nations body issued a statement after a US media giant reported that it had a copy of a “secret annexe” to the lastest IAEA report on Iran, which indicated that Tehran had the ability to make a nuclear bomb and was on the way to developing a missile system able to carry an atomic warhead.
“With respect to a recent media report, the IAEA reiterates that it has no concrete proof that there is or has been a nuclear weapon programme in Iran,” the statement read.