Nuclear Free Resolution Vote -Ghana Abstains

VIENNA: Ghana abstained from voting on a resolution at the UN atomic agency calling for a Middle East free of nuclear weapons.

Arab and other Islamic nations, targeting Israel's undeclared nuclear arsenal, pushed through the U.N. atomic watchdog resolution on Thursday calling on all Middle East nations to renounce atomic weapons.

The UN watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) adopted the Egyptian-sponsored resolution with Israel and the US voting against and EU states except Ireland abstaining.

The lack of consensus weakened the impact of the measure, at a general conference of the 144-nation IAEA.

The resolution was backed by 53 votes, with two against and 47 abstentions.

One Western diplomat said the large abstention vote, which included Australia, Canada, Georgia, Ghana and Zambia, “shows that the world is hanging together on these matters.”

The contested resolution, backed by the Arab League, contained two new paragraphs that were added to past texts and which Israel felt expanded the scope of the resolution too much, diplomats said.

The first called on “all states of the region, pending the establishment of the zone, not to develop, produce, test or otherwise acquire nuclear weapons or permit the stationing on their territories ... of nuclear weapons.”