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UN council backs broad nuclear agenda
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-09-25 11:47 UNITED NATIONS: With US President Barack Obama presiding, the UN Security Council on Thursday unanimously endorsed a sweeping strategy aimed at halting the spread of nuclear weapons and ultimately eliminating them, to usher in a world with "undiminished security for all."
The lengthy document was aimed, in part, at the nuclear programs of Iran and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), although they were not named. It also reflected Obama's ambitious agenda to embrace treaties and other agreements leading toward a nuclear weapon-free world, some of which is expected to encounter political opposition in Washington. On both counts, Thursday's 15-0 vote delivered a global consensus — countries ranging from Britain to China to Burkina Faso — that may add political impetus to dealing with nuclear violators, advancing arms control in international forums and winning support in the US Congress. "This is a historic moment, a moment offering a fresh start toward a new future," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, saluting the first such Security Council gathering of presidents and premiers to deal with nuclear nonproliferation. The 2,300-word document did not authorize any concrete actions, but it urged action on a long list of proposals before the international community. It called for negotiation of a treaty banning production of fissile material for nuclear bombs and establishment of internationally supervised nuclear fuel banks, to keep potential bomb material out of more hands — both items on Obama's agenda.
The United States is among nine nations with nuclear weapons or technology whose approval is required for that treaty to take effect, but which have not ratified the CTBT. Republican opposition defeated the test-ban pact in the US Senate in 1999, and Obama is expected to face similar GOP opposition in pushing for ratification next year. The Senate objected to the measure because the US might need to test its weapons to assure reliability, and there were concerns international monitoring might fail to detect cheaters. The resolution in various ways reaffirmed support for the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, the 1968 accord aimed at preventing the spread of atomic arms beyond five original weapons powers — the US, Russia, Britain, France and China. It bolstered a slew of earlier council resolutions that slapped sanctions on the DPRK, for its testing of nuclear weapons, and on Iran, whose uranium-enrichment program is suspected to be intended for nuclear weapons. It demanded that these "parties concerned" comply fully with such requirements. Obama, leading the meeting because the US is council president for the month of September, said the resolution was not "about singling out an individual nation." But French President Nicolas Sarkozy, in his council speech, directed sharp words at both countries. |
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