Arab states have dropped plans to submit a resolution at next week’s annual general conference of the UN atomic agency condemning Israel, diplomats to the Vienna-based body told AFP Thursday. The resolution, which would have urged Israel to accede to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), has been “frozen”, an Arab diplomat told AFP on condition of anonymity. Western envoys said they had understood the same. A similar resolution, despite being only symbolic, caused a storm in 2009 when it was adopted by a very narrow majority at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)’s general conference. The Arab diplomat said that Arab states had decided to refrain this year as a “confidence-building measure” ahead of a conference on a nuclear weapons-free Middle East to be held in 2012.
