Iraq and 14 other countries circulated today a draft resolution in the General Assembly strongly condemning Israel’s refusal to adhere to the 1981 Security Council resolution regarding the Israeli attack June 7, 1981, on the Iraqi nuclear installation near Baghdad.
The draft resolution demanded that Israel refrain from such acts or threats in the future and called for appropriate compensation to Iraq.
The draft also demanded that Israel cease any further threat to Iraqi nuclear installations and called on the Security Council to consider what measures could be taken to deter Israel. It called for the continued consideration by the international community of legal measures to prohibit armed attacks against nuclear facilities.
The draft asked that the Israeli attack be included again in the agenda of the next General Assembly in 1984. The draft also expressed appreciation for the report by the Secretary General, which was submitted to the General Assembly, on the work of a group of experts who looked into the consequences of the Israeli attack.
No vote was taken today on the draft because of the long list of speakers. According to diplomats, a vote may be taken tomorrow.
ISRAEL REJECTS THE DRAFT RESOLUTION
Ambassador Yehuda Blum of Israel, who addressed the Assembly, said “Israel rejects the draft resolution in its entirety and calls upon all states to join us in opposing it for the sake of this organization’s future and of peace in the Middle East.”
Referring to the report of the group of experts, Blum said that it tendentiously presented Iraq as a victimized and underdeveloped peace-loving nation which was prevented from achieving its economic and social progress because of the Israeli attack.
That, Blum noted, stood in absolute disproportion to the enormous economic burden of the Iran-Iraq war. He said it was preposterous that a group of experts should forget that largely self-induced dissipation of resources.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
