As Trump Saber-Rattles, Most of World Vows to Push Total Nuke Ban in New Year Jon Queally - Common Dreams
go to original December 24, 2016

Trump Quite Willing to Restart Nuclear Arms Race (Wochit Politics)

As U.S. President-elect Donald Trump continues to receive domestic and international rebuke for his comments on the subject, the General Assembly of the United Nations on Friday adopted a resolution which calls for negotiations to begin next year on an international treaty to completely ban the use of nuclear weapons.

The resolution was adopted by a large majority, with 113 UN member states voting in favour, 35 voting against and 13 abstaining. Support was strongest among the nations of Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Unfortunately, yet predictably, the resolution was opposed by the major nuclear powers, including the United States, Britain, France and Russia.

A cross-regional group comprising Austria, Brazil, Ireland, Mexico, Nigeria and South Africa initiated the resolution and are expected to lead the negotiations, now slated to begin in March.



The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), which backed the resolution, celebrated its passage and urged all nations to take part in the talks.

"Every nation has an interest in ensuring that nuclear weapons are never used again, which can only be guaranteed through their complete elimination. We are calling on all governments to join next year’s negotiations and work to achieve a strong and effective treaty," said Beatrice Fihn, executive director of ICAN.

Following public comments by Trump this week, nuclear weapons and the threat of proliferation broke into news headlines across the globe, ICAN argues that despite such careless rhetoric and behavior by world powers (by which they also meant recent statements by Russian President Vladimir Putin), the drive to ban the weapons will continue.

As Putin & Trump calls for a new nuclear arms race, we are leading the counter-movement. We're banning nukes in 2017, with or without them! pic.twitter.com/fWUJKxXdOp

— ICAN (@nuclearban) December 22, 2016

See the original at Common Dreams

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!