UNITED NATIONS (AP) \u2014 The United Nations announced Saturday that 50 countries have ratified a U.N. treaty to ban nuclear weapons triggering its entry into force in 90 days, a move hailed by anti-nuclear activists but strongly opposed by the United States and the other major nuclear powers.<\/p>\n
As of Friday, the treaty had 49 signatories, and the United Nations said the 50th ratification from Honduras had been received.<\/p>\n
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres commended the 50 states and saluted \u201cthe instrumental work\u201d of civil society in facilitating negotiations and pushing for ratification, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.<\/p>\n
The U.N. chief said the treaty\u2019s entry into force on Jan. 22 culminates a worldwide movement \u201cto draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons\u201d and \u201cis a tribute to the survivors of nuclear explosions and tests, many of whom advocated for this treaty,\u201d he said,<\/p>\n
Guterres said the treaty \u201crepresents a meaningful commitment towards the total elimination of nuclear weapons, which remains the highest disarmament priority of the United Nations,\u201d Dujarric said.<\/p>\n
Beatrice Fihn, executive director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize-winning coalition whose work helped spearhead the nuclear ban treaty, said: \u201cThis moment has been 75 years coming since the horrific attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the founding of the U.N. which made nuclear disarmament a cornerstone.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 50 countries that ratify this Treaty are showing true leadership in setting a new international norm that nuclear weapons are not just immoral but illegal,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The 50th ratification came on the 75th anniversary of the ratification of the U.N. Charter which officially established the United Nations and is celebrated as UN Day.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe United Nations was formed to promote peace with a goal of the abolition of nuclear weapons,\u201d Fihn said. \u201cThis treaty is the U.N. at its best \u2014 working closely with civil society to bring democracy to disarmament.\u201d<\/p>\n
The treaty requires that all ratifying countries \u201cnever under any circumstances \u2026 develop, test, produce, manufacture, otherwise acquire, possess or stockpile nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices.\u201d It also bans any transfer or use of nuclear weapons or nuclear explosive devices \u2014 and the threat to use such weapons \u2014 and requires parties to promote the treaty to other countries.<\/p>\n
Once it enters into force all countries that have ratified it will be bound by those requirements.<\/p>\n
The United States had written to treaty signatories saying the Trump administration believes they made \u201ca strategic error\u201d and urging them to rescind their ratification.<\/p>\n
The U.S. letter, obtained by The Associated Press, said the five original nuclear powers \u2014 the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France \u2014 and America\u2019s NATO allies \u201cstand unified in our opposition to the potential repercussions\u201d of the treaty.<\/p>\n
It says the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, known as the TPNW, \u201cturns back the clock on verification and disarmament and is dangerous\u201d to the half-century-old Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, considered the cornerstone of global nonproliferation efforts.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe TPNW is and will remain divisive in the international community and risk further entrenching divisions in existing nonproliferation and disarmament fora that offer the only realistic prospect for consensus-based progress,\u201d the letter said. \u201cIt would be unfortunate if the TPNW were allowed to derail our ability to work together to address pressing proliferation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fihn has stressed that \u201cthe nonproliferation Treaty is about preventing the spread of nuclear weapons and eliminating nuclear weapons, and this treaty implements that. There\u2019s no way you can undermine the Nonproliferation Treaty by banning nuclear weapons. It\u2019s the end goal of the Nonproliferation Treaty.\u201d<\/p>\n
The NPT sought to prevent the spread of nuclear arms beyond the five original weapons powers. It requires non-nuclear signatory nations to not pursue atomic weapons in exchange for a commitment by the five powers to move toward nuclear disarmament and to guarantee non-nuclear states\u2019 access to peaceful nuclear technology for producing energy.<\/p>\n
Rebecca Johnson, a co-founder and first president of the International Campaign to Ban Nuclear Weapons, said: \u201cThe ban treaty is as much about just making it much more possible for people all around the world to see nobody needs nuclear weapons, and they\u2019re actually an impediment, an obstacle \u2014 they\u2019re in the way of dealing with the real security threats we have on the ground from COVID to climate.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said in an AP interview that nuclear weapons can\u2019t prevent or deal with conflicts like the most recent war between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. \u201cThey\u2019re just in the way, and they\u2019re highly expensive, and the governments that have them are distracted from the real security issues by trying to constantly pay for these arms races that they\u2019re still obsessed with.\u201d<\/p>\n
Francesco Rocca, president of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said: \u201cThe simple reality is that the international community could never hope to deal with the consequences of a nuclear confrontation. No nation is prepared to deal with a nuclear confrontation. What we cannot prepare for, we must prevent.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are over 14,000 nuclear bombs in the world, thousands of which are ready to be launched in an instant, Rocca said. The power of many of those warheads is tens of times greater than the weapons dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima.<\/p>\n
Secretary-General Guterres said in an Associated Press interview on Wednesday: \u201cIt is clear for me that we will only be entirely safe in relation to nuclear weapons the day where nuclear weapons no longer exist. We know that it\u2019s not easy. We know that there are many obstacles.\u201d<\/p>\n
He expressed hope that a number of important initiatives, including U.S.-Russia talks on renewing the New Start Treaty limiting deployed nuclear warheads, missiles and bombers and next year\u2019s review conference of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, \u201cwill all converge in the same direction, and the final objective must be to have a world with no nuclear weapons.\u201d<\/p>\n
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UNITED NATIONS (AP) \u2014 The United Nations announced Saturday that 50 countries have ratified a U.N. treaty to ban nuclear weapons triggering its entry into force in 90 days, a move hailed by anti-nuclear activists but strongly opposed by the United States and the other major nuclear powers. As of Friday, the treaty had 49 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":2954,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,12],"tags":[348],"class_list":["post-29342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-un"],"yoast_head":"\n