Alghadeer TV Alghadeer TV
The United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly backs a resolution urging Israel to give up its nuclear weapons and join the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).
During its meeting on Wednesday, 149 voted in favor and six against the text of a resolution whose earlier version had been approved in the General Assembly’s Fifth Committee in October with a 152-5 vote.
According to Press TV, Ukraine had voted against Israel in the Fifth Committee, but this time around was absent from the proceedings after it had been criticized for standing against the Tel Aviv regime.
The resolution urges Israel “not to develop, produce, test or others acquire nuclear weapons” and to “renounce possession of nuclear weapons.”
It also called on Israel to accede to the NPT and to place all its nuclear facilities under the comprehensive International Atomic Energy Agency Safeguards.
Canada, Israel, Micronesia, Palau and the United States voted against the resolution. Liberia, which had been absent from the vote in October, changed its position and opposed it.
The resolution was put forward by Palestine and 20 countries, including Israel’s allies in West Asia such as Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain, Morocco, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates.
Israel is widely known as the sole possessor of nukes in West Asia, but it has never admitted to having such an arsenal.
Israel, India, Pakistan and South Sudan have not signed the NPT.
Only Israel voted against a resolution calling for the establishment of a nuclear-free zone in West Asia, a text that had the support of 175 out of the UN 193 nations while the US and Singapore abstained.
