New York
\nThe world is just \u201cone misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation.\u201d
\nThat was the dire warning from U.N. Secretary General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres at a global meeting Monday on nuclear weapons.
\nOfficials underscored the geopolitical risks from Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine and simmering tensions in Asia and the Middle East \u2014 as they review a 52-year-old landmark treaty that sought to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons.
\n\u201cCrises with nuclear undertones are festering, from the Middle East and the Korean Peninsula to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and to many other factors around the world,\u201d the U.N. chief told officials and diplomats at the General Assembly Hall in New York.
\n\u201cNuclear danger not seen since the height of the Cold War\u201d showed the need for the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, he said.
\nNearly 13,000 nuclear weapons are held in arsenals worldwide, according to Guterres. He said states were \u201cseeking false security in stockpiling and spending hundreds of billions of dollars on doomsday weapons that have no place on our planet.\u201d
\nEchoing his warnings, a Stockholm-based arms research group said in June that it saw a \u201cvery worrying trend\u201d of all nuclear-armed states upgrading their stockpiles and that the post-Cold War era of declining nuclear arsenals may be ending.
\nRussia\u2019s war in Ukraine is also laying bare the risks of waging combat in a battlefield scattered with nuclear sites.
\nU.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused Moscow of \u201creckless, dangerous nuclear saber rattling,\u201d and referred to past comments from Russian President Vladimir Putin that countries interfering in Ukraine risked consequences \u201csuch as you have never seen in your entire history.\u201d
\nIn a more conciliatory message, Putin wrote to treaty members on Monday that \u201cthere can be no winners in a nuclear war, and it must never be fought.\u201d
\nAn extension last year on the New START nuclear arms accord until 2026 has prolonged limits on the arsenals of the United States and Russia. Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia\u2019s Security Council, said on Telegram that the world was \u201cin a different place\u201d after President Biden called Monday for talks on the deal.
\nAt the U.N. meeting, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said the conflict in Ukraine was \u201cso grave that the specter of a potential nuclear confrontation, or accident, has raised its terrifying head again.\u201d
\nRafael Grossi said safety was at risk at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine \u2014 Europe\u2019s largest nuclear plant, which is under Russian control \u2014 and urged support for his so far unsuccessful efforts to visit the facility with a team from his U.N. watchdog.
\nSpeakers from countries including Japan said the heightened nuclear rhetoric should not jeopardize the treaty\u2019s mission.
\nThe four-week conference to review its progress presents \u201can opportunity to hammer out the measures that will help avoid certain disaster,\u201d Guterres said. He urged countries not to forget \u201cthe terrifying fires\u201d of Hiroshima, when the United States dropped an atomic bomb in 1945 that obliterated much of the Japanese city, and of Nagasaki days later \u2014 the second and last time that bomb was used in war.
\nThe Non-Proliferation Treaty, which went into force in 1970 and allows for nuclear energy for peaceful uses, has 191 members, more countries than any other arms control agreement.
\nUnder its terms, the five nuclear powers \u2014 the United States, China, the Soviet Union, Britain and France \u2014 had agreed at the time to negotiate to eventually eliminate their arsenals, while countries without nuclear weapons pledged not to acquire them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New York The world is just \u201cone misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation.\u201d That was the dire warning from U.N. Secretary General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres at a global meeting Monday on nuclear weapons. Officials underscored the geopolitical risks from Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine and simmering tensions in Asia and the Middle East \u2014 as they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275189,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-275184","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n