Angry in the Great White North

Jack Layton's next big issue?

More than a dozen Arab countries were blocked by a Canadian motion in their bid to have a vote on a resolution labelling Israel's nuclear capabilities a threat on the final day of the International Atomic Energy Agency's annual meeting.

The draft resolution, which also called upon Israel to join the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, was blocked from going to a vote Friday by the Canadian delegate.

Right, Israel will join the NNPT even as Iran is preparing a bomb under the shadow of the promise of wiping out Israel. The irony, of course, what that the resolution was co-sponsored by Iran:

In co-sponsoring the resolution, Iran was also seeking to counter criticism of its own nuclear program, which the United States and others insist is aimed at the production of atomic weapons. Iran insists it only wants to generate power.

"Iran...has always called for establishing a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction...It is of profound regret that this issue is trapped in a vicious cycle," said Ali Ashgar Soltanieh, Iran's ambassador to the IAEA.

The fact that the resolution was even tabled is significant -- and awkward:

"For the first time since 1991" -- when a similar resolution was adopted -- "they seem ready to go all the way in dealing with this question," only six weeks after the Israeli bombardment of Hezbollah forces in southern Lebanon, a Western diplomat said.

In recent years similar resolutions against Israel have been proposed, but none found their way onto the IAEA's formal agenda because of Israeli support for an Egyptian appeal for a ban on nuclear weapons in the Middle East, he said.

But Syria's representative at the IAEA, Ibrahim Othman, one of the main sponsors of the resolution targeting Israel, told the agency's 141 members that Israel's "criminal aggression against Lebanon and Palestine" required that a formal text be adopted.

"It is true that the conflict in Lebanon complicated things, but we can't hope that they will pull back as has happened in the past," another Western diplomat said of the proposed resolution.

Negotiations were underway on Wednesday on the sidelines of official IAEA meetings in Vienna, he said.

The presence of this item on the agenda would put Western powers in an awkward position by forcing them to take a position on Israel's nuclear activities.

Looks like they came up with a plan, and Canada was asked to take the point:

The measure calling Israel's program a threat, which was co-sponsored by Iran, was kept from going to a vote after 45 countries backed a no-action motion by the Canadian delegate, effectively adjourning the debate Friday evening.

Among those supporting the effort to block the vote were the United States, Israel, France, Germany and Britain. Those abstaining included China, Russia and Nigeria, among others.

Let's see if there is any response (Stephen Harper is George W Bush's lapdop, and so forth) from the usual suspects.

Stll, they do have a point. Would Canada have been trusted by other Western democracies to play this role under the Liberal governments of the past? I'm not sure our allies would have even thought to ask Canada to take the point on this one.