Tehran, Iran, May 22
By Mehdi Sepahvand – Trend:
Countries with nuclear weapons have given way to some of the more important demands made by states without a nuclear weapons, the NAM countries, and some pro-disarmament Western states such as Switzerland, Austria, Ireland, Sweden, the Netherlands, and New Zealand, Director General of Disarmament Affairs of the Iranian Foreign Ministry Hamid Baidi Nejad said.
Baidi Nejad made the statements in a post on Instagram on May 23, reporting the NPT Review Conference that has been underway since April 7.
He said that the new decision by states possessing nuclear weapons would open the way for an agreement on the NPT.
He explained that at 8:00 New York time on Thursday, the speaker of the conference presented the consultative committee of 20 attending states, 5 nuclear states plus 15 NAM members, with a draft of agreements made during the talks up to that point.
The draft has been discussed to 4:00 in the morning and contains moderate positions to be agreed to by all sides, Baidi Nejad quoted the speaker as having said.
This comes while the states with nuclear weapons claim that they are in tough situations on the international arena, especially since differences came forth as the result of the US move to launch a ballistic defense system in Europe, which met Russian criticism.
Discussions on convening a conference are intensifying in New York this week as the U.S. and other nations debate a draft statement that seeks to strengthen a 1970 U.N. treaty that regulates nuclear technologies and aims for the eventual eradication of the world’s nuclear weapons, the WSJ writes.
U.N. officials are seeking to reach agreement on the draft statement by Friday, when a Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference ends, according to diplomats involved in the process.
A draft circulated at the U.N. calls for a conference that would pursue a Middle East free of nuclear weapons to be held as early as December, according to the diplomats.
Edited by CN
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