United Nations — A United Nations conference lasts four weeks Treaty review US non-proliferation peace talks ended on Friday without an agreement, with the US and Iran at loggerheads over Iran’s nuclear programme.
Vietnam’s UN Ambassador Do Hung Viet, who chaired the conference, announced that there was no consensus among the 191 signatories of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty on even a watered-down final document. He did not mention the country or countries that prevented reaching a consensus.
This is the third successive failure at a conference to review the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which is considered the cornerstone of nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament at the global level. In the last review of the treaty in August 2022, Russia blocked agreement on a final document on its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine and references to Moscow’s occupation of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe.
The tensions are over Tehran’s nuclear programme Tensions rose ahead of the Iran War, which began with US and Israeli air strikes on February 28. President Donald Trump said the war was aimed at preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. Iran has enriched uranium to levels approaching weapons-grade levels, but insists that its program is intended for civilian purposes only.
The United States and Iran have clashed since the opening of the review conference on April 27. The United States accused Iran of showing “contempt” for its obligations under the treaty, while Iran said that the American and Israeli attacks on its nuclear facilities violate international law.
Iran is a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which obliges countries to open all nuclear sites for inspection by the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency. But Iran did not hand over inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency Access to nuclear sites That was it Bombed by the United States Last June.
In speeches at the end of the conference, the United States called Iran a “major violator of the treaty” and said it had spent the conference “evading accountability for its egregious violations.” Iran accused the United States and its allies of waging a “relentless campaign” to legitimize their “unlawful attacks” on the country and its nuclear facilities.
Darryl Kimball, executive director of the Washington-based Arms Control Association, said the conference “demonstrated that rhetorical support for the NPT is strong, but that the foundations of the NPT are cracking due to inaction, disinterest and intransigence on the part of major powers.”
“More informed, engaged, and realistic leadership and diplomacy will be needed to protect against the growing risks of unrestrained nuclear buildup, threats to resume nuclear testing, and the risk of Iran obtaining nuclear weapons,” Kimball said.
Rebecca Johnson, the British founding executive director of the Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy, strongly criticized both the United States and Russia, the two largest nuclear powers, and said that the two countries “emphasize nuclear threats, shift blame onto others, and attempt to undermine or ignore nuclear disarmament obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and related agreements.”