"This resolution is deeply flawed and hypocritical. It ignores the realities of the Middle East and the real threats facing the region and the entire world," said a statement issued by the Israeli government in Toronto, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Canada.
"It singles out Israel, the Middle East's only true democracy and the only country threatened with annihilation," the statement added. "Given the distorted nature of this resolution, Israel will not be able to take part in its implementation."
The Jewish state has reacted furiously to the agreement reached Friday at the 2010 Non-Proliferation Treaty review conference, which called for a regional conference in 2012 to advance the goal of a nuclear-free Middle East.
The accord specifically mentions "the importance of Israel's accession to the treaty and the placement of all its nuclear facilities under comprehensive IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) safeguards." But the text makes no mention of Iran, which faces a new round of United Nations sanctions over its refusal to halt uranium enrichment as part of a nuclear program that many in the international community fear masks a nuclear weapons drive. Tehran says the program is for civilian nuclear energy only.
Israel is widely believed to have nuclear weapons, but it maintains a policy of refusing to deny or acknowledge its nuclear arsenal.
Although the US joined the 188 other member nations of the NPT on Friday in giving a green light to the conference in 2012, senior US officials appeared to backtrack afterward, setting several conditions for the talks to go ahead.
Taking the toughest line, US National Security Adviser Gen. James Jones said in a statement Friday night that the United States has "serious reservations" about the 2012 conference and believes Mideast peace and full compliance by all countries in the region to their arms control and nonproliferation obligations "are essential precursors" of a WMD-free zone. The compliance demand appeared to be aimed at Iran.
Jones also strongly defended Israel, which was singled out for not being a member of the NPT. He said the United States "deplores" the naming of Israel which puts prospects for the 2012 conference "in doubt." As a co-sponsor of the conference, Jones said the United States will ensure that it will only take place "if and when all countries feel confident that they can attend."
The Arab proposal for a WMD-free zone — to pressure Israel to give up its undeclared arsenal of perhaps 80 nuclear warheads — was endorsed by the 1995 NPT conference but never acted on. At this month's NPT review, a conference to begin talks on a nuclear-free Mideast was considered by many delegates as "the make-or-break issue," and agreement on the 2012 meeting was widely welcomed after the 28-page final declaration was approved by consensus.
But the US reaction raised questions and doubts about whether Israel, Iran and other countries in the Mideast will even hold a meeting in two years.
Several delegates suggested that earlier comments by US Undersecretary of State Ellen Tauscher and President Barack Obama's coordinator for weapons of mass destruction, Gary Samore, warning about the difficulties of holding a conference and persuading Israel to attend may have been sparked by the upcoming visit of Netanyahu to the White House on Tuesday.
Egypt's UN Ambassador Maged Abdelaziz, speaking for the 118-nation Nonaligned Movement, said that during the negotiations there was "a little bit of disagreement" on mentioning Israel. But he said NAM members thought that since the document issued at the end of the 2000 NPT review conference mentioned the need for Israel to join the treaty and subject its nuclear capabilities to International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards there was "no going back on that commitment" and Israel had to be mentioned in the 2010 document as well.
