U.N. ATOMIC WATCHDOG IGNORES IRAN, GOES AFTER....ISRAEL

THE U.N.'S IAEA HAS NAMED SYRIA ITS CO-CHAIR. THE IAEA NO PROBLEM WITH IRAN RACING ALONG WITH ITS NUCLEAR PROGRAM, EVEN THOUGH IRAN HAS CLEARLY THREATENED TO USE NUKES AGAINST AT LEAST ONE U.N. MEMBER (ISRAEL). SO WHAT DOES TROUBLE THE IAEA? ISRAEL, OF COURSE.

Arabs push through U.N. watchdog vote against Israel
VIENNA (Reuters) - Arab and other Islamic nations, targeting Israel's undeclared nuclear arsenal, pushed through a U.N. atomic watchdog resolution on Thursday calling on all Middle East nations to renounce atomic weapons.

The unusual vote was 53-2 but with 47 abstentions by Western and developing states, highlighting reservations that the move politicized the International Atomic Energy Agency's work.

The decision was non-binding but symbolized tensions over Israel's presumed nuclear might and shunning of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and it frayed the traditional consensus culture of the Vienna-based IAEA.

Israel is widely assumed to have the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal, though it has never confirmed or denied it.

A similar resolution urging all Middle East nations to adopt IAEA safeguards on nuclear work passed overwhelmingly at last year's IAEA general assembly, with only Israel and top ally the United States opposed, as they were again on Thursday.

Egypt reintroduced the resolution this year seeking full consensus but attached two new clauses that prompted Israel to demand a vote and European, other Western and non-aligned developing nations to abstain.

One clause urged all nations in the Middle East, pending creation of a nuclear weapons-free zone (NWFZ) there, not to make or test nuclear arms or let them be deployed on their soil. The other urged big nuclear arms powers not to foil such a step.

"The new language threatened to bring new political issues into the IAEA that would ultimately detract from the technical role the IAEA plays in safeguarding nuclear material," said a Western diplomat whose delegation abstained.