Member states of the United Nations nuclear watchdog narrowly rejected an Arab-sponsored resolution on Friday calling on Israel to join a global anti-atomic weapons treaty in a diplomatic victory for the United States.
Washington had urged countries to vote down the symbolically important although non-binding resolution, saying it could derail broader efforts to ban nuclear warheads in the Middle East and also send a negative signal to the relaunched Israeli-Palestinian peace process.Obama's speech missed the numerous times the United States failed to prevent nuclear proliferation, India, Israel and Pakistan. Israel spoke strongly on the Arab resolution:
"Adopting this resolution will be a fatal blow to any hope for future cooperative efforts toward better regional security in the Middle East," Israel's IAEA envoy Ehud Azoulay said, shortly before the vote.Fatal blow? The U.S and Israel sat on the Arab League Peace Plan for eight years. Peace already looks like a corpse. Obama may be a war president (of his initiation) come 2012.
Update: Hillary Clinton scrambled to keep PA President Mahmoud Abbas at the negotiating table. An Arab League representative warned of a Middle East arms race if Israel keeps nuclear weapons.
