Last month, the countries which take part in the "Kimberley Process," whose declared aim is to end the trading of "conflict diamonds," appointed Israel to chair their efforts for 2010, reported Israel Today.

Since then, each of the countries involved has been working hard to come up with a consensus draft resolution to be adopted by the UN General Assembly, where the new anti-conflict diamonds campaign is due to be launched.

As the last moves to finalize the resolution came together on Friday, Syria suddenly raised opposition to Israel's key leadership role in the Kimberley Process and demanded that each and every mention of Israel and its role in the Kimberley Process be deleted from the document.

Syria’s unexpected reaction was met by confusion by the other nations which stated that they did not understand the relevance of removing Israel from the document or why Syria had not mentioned its objections earlier. As a result, Syria’s request was defeated 90-6 with 18 abstentions, while Iran and North Korea joined a host of other Arab nations that supported the Syrian motion.