Washington criticizes Moscow for blocking the "malicious" UN text on nuclear disarmament

The United States condemned - on Sunday - what it described as "malicious Russian obstruction" of adopting a joint declaration at the conclusion of the tenth United Nations conference to review the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, and Moscow linked its refusal to the declaration's inclusion of political terms that oppose it.

The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons - reviewed every five years by the 191 signatories - aims to stop the spread of nuclear weapons, promote complete disarmament, and enhance cooperation in the peaceful use of nuclear energy.

"After weeks of intense and fruitful negotiations, the Russian Federation alone decided to block consensus on a final document," said Vidant Patel, deputy spokesperson for the US State Department, in a statement, at the conclusion of the 4-week United Nations Conference on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons at UN Headquarters. United in New York.

Zaporozhye station

Patel added that Russia did so "with the aim of preventing the use of words recognizing the enormous radiological risks at the Zaporozhye nuclear plant, which Moscow has controlled since last March, days after it launched the war on Ukraine.

The last draft of the text presented at the conclusion of the UN conference spoke of "grave concern" about military activities around Ukrainian power stations, including the Zaporozhye plant (the largest European nuclear plant), and about "Ukraine's loss of control" over such sites and the negative impact on the security of the sites. and its surroundings.

Kyiv and Moscow accuse each other of bombing the plant, and the nuclear plant's operator has warned of the risks of a radioactive leak.

After the UN conference failed to issue a final document, the Permanent Representative of France to the conference, Ambassador Yan Huang, read a statement to journalists, on behalf of 55 countries, including Turkey, the United States, France and Britain, in which he stressed "the commitment to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons as the cornerstone of disarmament." nuclear and non-proliferation regime.

The statement expressed its deep concern over what it described as "Russia's threat to international peace and the objectives of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons by launching an illegal war on Ukraine."