Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hossam Zaki voiced on 1/11/2009 Egypt's welcome of the UN General Assembly's endorsement of a draft resolution, presented by Egypt, on freeing the region of nuclear arms.

Egypt managed to garner the necessary support to endorse the draft resolution, Zaki said, adding that the Israeli delegation requested to vote on a paragraph in the draft, which refers to a resolution, previously endorsed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) at a general conference in Vienna, requiring Israel to subject its nuclear facilities to IAEA safeguards regime.

And the vote was held, Zaki said, noting that 166 countries, including the US, voted in favour of retaining the paragraph as it is, while only three countries abstained.

Zaki said that the US' vote in favour of the paragraph, in spite of Israel's opposing, is considered a positive change in the US stances in this regard.