The IAEA voted 100-1 in favor of a resolution calling on the Middle East to be a nuclear-weapons free zone, meaning that all countries of the region should abandon nuclear weapons. Only Israel has nuclear weapons now, and only Israel voted against the resolution. There were also 4 abstentions: US, Canada, India and Georgia. (Last year the vote was 82-0 with 13 abstentions).
Israel said it voted no because the draft retained a clause calling "upon all states in the region to accede" to the NPT.
Also, Ehud Barak, Israel's Defense Minister, rejected the idea of a Middle East nuclear weapons free zone, saying that the Mideast is too unruly for a region-wide nuclear arms ban. Asked if Israel would sign on to a treaty for a nuclear-free Mideast, Barak said that "until the Muslim world from Marakesh to Bangladesh behaves like Western Europe, there can be no debate on nuclear disarmament."
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