[News] US, Israel are the only countries to oppose UN ban on weapons in outer space
Anti-Imperialist News
news at freedomarchives.org
Thu Dec 4 12:24:05 EST 2014
US, Israel are the only countries to oppose UN ban on weapons in outer
space
Submitted by Ali Abunimah on Thu, 12/04/2014 - 12:34
*http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/us-israel-are-only-countries-oppose-un-ban-weapons-outer-space*
Israel and the United States were the only two countries to vote against
a UN resolution
<http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/69/438> calling for
the prevention of an arms race in outer space.
The resolution was among several dealing with international disarmament
passed by the General Assembly on 2 December, including one calling on
Israel to join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and bring its rogue
nuclear program under international supervision.
China and India, which both have space programs, along with the member
states of the European Space Agency
<http://www.esa.int/About_Us/Welcome_to_ESA/New_Member_States>, voted
for the initiative aimed at keeping space free of weapons.
The US and Israel were also the only two countries to vote against a
separate UN resolution calling for a prohibition on the development and
manufacture of new types of weapons of mass destruction.
That resolution
<http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/69/433> passed with
174 countries voting in favor and a single abstention, Ukraine.
Among those voting for the ban on new weapons of mass destruction were
Iran <http://electronicintifada.net/tags/iran> and Iraq
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/iraq>, two states subjected to
devastating war or sanctions on the basis of dubious or fabricated
Israeli and American claims that they intended to produce such weapons.
Iran is currently under harsh economic sanctions -- in large part due to
pressure from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu -- over its
nuclear energy program.
Israel: a nuclear danger
The US and Israel were only slightly less isolated when it came to a
resolution on the "risk of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East
<http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/69/443>."
The only votes against the resolution were Canada, Israel, the US and
its colonial holdover Micronesia.
The resolution
<http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/69/443> calls on
Israel to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) "without
delay," noting that it remains "the only State in the Middle East that
has not yet" done so.
Since the 1950s, Israel has been making atomic bombs with the complicity
and support of its Western sponsors
<http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/15/truth-israels-secret-nuclear-arsenal>
including France, the US and the UK.
Israel, as I explain in my book /The Battle for Justice in Palestine/
<http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/my-new-book-battle-justice-palestine>,
has a poor record of nuclear safety.
It came near the bottom
<http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/israel-flunks-nuclear-safety-test-but-ranks-above-iran-and-north-korea-1.407350>
of a 2012 survey by the Nuclear Safety Initiative examining the security
conditions of nuclear materials held in 32 countries.
But the full extent of the nuclear danger Israel poses cannot be known
while its facilities remain hidden from international inspection.
The resolution urges Israel to place "all its nuclear facilities under
comprehensive International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards."
Shielding Israel
US envoy Robert Wood voted against the resolution at the committee-level
last month on the grounds
<http://www.timesunion.com/news/us/article/UN-assembly-calls-on-Israel-to-join-nuclear-treaty-5929740.php>
that the measure "fails to meet the fundamental tests of fairness and
balance. It confines itself to expressions of concern about the
activities of a single country."
The fact that Israel is indeed the single country with nuclear weapons
in the region, and the single country that has not signed the NPT,
apparently escaped his notice.
What is interesting is that twenty states abstained from the resolution
calling on Israel to join the NPT.
These include nuclear-weapons power and new Israeli ally India, Germany
(which gives Israel submarines on which it deploys nuclear weapons
<http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/israel-deploys-nuclear-weapons-on-german-submarines-a-836671.html>)
and other EU states including the UK, Italy, Austria, the Netherlands
and France.
These are sadly the usual suspects who lecture the rest of the world
about "peace" but are always on hand to assist Israel to commit its
crimes while shielding it from any accountability.
--
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