Israel won a key vote at the International Atomic Energy Agency Friday with the defeat of a resolution calling for a closer examination of the country's nuclear program.

The vote on the Israeli Nuclear Capabilities Resolution by the United Nations nuclear watchdog's highest body, the General Conference, in which all 151 member states have a vote, was defeated narrowly, 51 against, 46 for, and 23 abstentions. The remainder of the states that were eligible to vote were not in the hall at the time of the vote, an IAEA spokesman said.

The Arab-backed resolution expressed "concern about Israeli nuclear capabilities" and called on Israel to "accede to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and place all its nuclear facilities under comprehensive IAEA safeguards," according to a copy of the resolution.

The resolution defeated on Friday echoed a similar resolution narrowly approved last year. The 2009 resolution required IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano to report on Israeli nuclear capabilities. Earlier this month the IAEA issued an 81-page report as required by the 2009 resolution.

As the U.S. contribution to the IAEA report on Israeli Nuclear Capabilities, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrote in a letter to the IAEA, "the divisive Israeli Nuclear Capabilities resolution would disrupt efforts to create favorable conditions for implementation of the 2012 conference on a Middle East zone free of weapons of mass destruction," according to a copy of the letter released by the IAEA.

In the lead-up to the vote, Israel and its Western allies, including the U.S., had portrayed the resolution as a sideshow at the IAEA that detracts attention from the agency's key issues, including Iran's cooperation with IAEA inspectors.

The IAEA says Iran has failed to provide cooperation needed to determine the nature of its nuclear program. Iran says its nuclear program is peaceful and that Iran fulfills its international obligations to the IAEA.

Speaking for Israel in a statement to the conference earlier this week, the Director General of the Israel Atomic Energy Commission Shaul Chorev said, "Regrettably the agenda of the General Conference is occupied by anti-Israeli items submitted with a clear purpose, to avoid discussion of serious violations of the NPT and safeguards obligations by states in the Middle East," according to a copy of the statement. The resolution "is incompatible with the basic principles and norms of international law, and does not fall within the mandate of the agency," Mr. Chorev said.

After the vote Friday afternoon, Iran vowed to reintroduce the resolution next year.

"The U.S. and Israeli allies have confronted ... the whole world, and this is a dark page in history for their foreign policy,'' Iranian delegate Ali Asghar Soltanieh told reporters, according to the Associated Press.

Western diplomats who previously worked to defeat the resolution played down their victory. In a statement, the German foreign ministry sought to move on from the vote, "We work together with our European Union partners for a nuclear-weapons-free Middle East," a German foreign ministry spokesman said.

U.S. Ambassador Glyn Davies, who lobbied intensively to defeat the resolution, said there were "no winners and losers" in the Friday vote. The resolution's defeat "preserves the opportunity for peace in the Middle East," Mr. Davies said via his spokeswoman in a statement. A key goal of U.S. Middle East foreign policy is to keep Israel engaged in the peace process.

In a telephone conversation after the vote, South African Ambassador to the IAEA Abdul Minty said his nation voted for the resolution. South Africa is an influential member of the Non-Aligned Movement representing developing countries that demand access to nuclear technology in exchange for their agreement as signatories to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to use nuclear energy only for peaceful purposes. Israel is not a party to the treaty. In a statement earlier in the week, South Africa called on Israel to accede to the NPT.

"Clearly there continues to be polarization on this issue," Mr. Minty said after the vote, adding a new vote on Israeli nuclear capabilities is likely in 2011.

Also Friday the IAEA General Conference passed a broader resolution on the "Application of IAEA safeguards in the Middle East." Without naming specific states, the resolution urged all Middle East states to accede to the NPT and to cooperate with the "full-scope" of IAEA safeguards. One-hundred-twenty states voted for the resolution, while none opposed. Six nations abstained, including the U.S., Canada and Israel.