The U.N. Security Council today endorsed a resolution intended to point the way toward global nuclear disarmament, the Washington Post reported (see GSN, Sept. 23).
(Sep. 24) -
U.S. President Barack Obama addresses the U.N. Security Council today. The body adopted a resolution aimed at curbing the spread of nuclear weapons (Emmanuel Dunand/Getty Images).
The resolution, prepared by the United States, is aimed at discouraging withdrawal from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, increasing membership in the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and creating additional nuclear weapon-free zones, among other measures.
U.S. President Barack Obama, who chaired the session, called nuclear weapons a "fundamental threat" to all nations.
"Just one nuclear weapon exploded in a city -- be it New York or Moscow, Tokyo or Beijing, London or Paris -- could kill hundreds of thousands of people and would badly destabilize our security, our economies and our very way of life," he said in an address to the meeting attended by world leaders and dignitaries.
Although the resolution won unanimous approval from the 15-nation body, the United States failed to secure permission from Russia and China to specifically cite nuclear threats posed by Iran and North Korea. The document instead cites Security Council resolutions on the two states.
Obama rapped Tehran and Pyongyang in his speech, though, stating that "international law is not an empty promise."
Nonaligned Movement member nations criticized one measure in the resolution demanding that suspected breaches of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty be referred directly to the Security Council for possible punitive action, rather than to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
French President Nicholas Sarkozy expressed concern that international rebukes would not be sufficient to curb the ambitions of would-be nuclear powers: "If we have the courage to affirm and impose sanctions together against those who violate resolutions of the Security Council, we will be lending credibility to our commitment towards a world with fewer nuclear weapons," he said (Kessler/Sheridan, Washington Post, Sept. 24).
A White House fact sheet described the resolution as a step toward eventual worldwide nuclear disarmament.
"We harbor no illusions about the difficulty of bringing about a world without nuclear weapons," Obama said in a statement. "We know there are plenty of cynics, and that there will be setbacks to prove their point. But there will also be days like today that push us forward -- days that tell a different story" (Diane Barnes, Global Security Newswire, Sept. 24).
Obama said the Security Council document supports the program to secure all nuclear material within four years and would make it more difficult for nations to turn their civilian nuclear activities to weapons work, the New York Times reported.
However, it would take continued Security Council action to establish rules based on the nonbinding resolution, officials said (Cooper/Otterman, New York Times, Sept. 25).
Meanwhile, foreign ministers from 150 nations that have ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty today released a declaration urging its entry into force (see GSN, Sept. 22).
The declaration came during a two-day conference on the treaty at the United Nations in New York.
“We call upon all states which have not yet done so, to sign and ratify the treaty without delay, in particular, those states whose ratification is needed for entry into force,” the declaration says.
Forty-four “Annex 2” countries must ratify the treaty before it becomes global law. There are nine holdouts -- China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan and the United States.
The declaration lays out a number of measures to promote entry into force, including holding “regional seminars” to increases awareness about the pact and continued provision of legal support by the provisional CTBT technical secretariat on ratification and implementation issues.
The document notes the North Korean nuclear tests of 2006 and 2009 and calls for continued development of the system for detecting atomic blasts.
"In accordance with the letter and spirit of the treaty, we reaffirm our firm determination to end nuclear weapon test explosions and any other nuclear explosions,” the document says. “We call upon all states not to carry out such explosions. Continuing and sustained voluntary adherence to a moratorium is of the highest importance, but does not have the same effect as the entry into force of the treaty, which offers the global community the prospect of a permanent and legally binding commitment to end nuclear weapon test explosions or any other nuclear explosions” (Martin Matishak, Global Security Newswire, Sept. 24).