The United States spent the first two weeks of the conference quietly seeking to block discussions of nuclear disarmament-related commitments

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Activists warn US, Iran may sink nuclear talks

UNITED NATIONS: Disarmament activists accused the United States and Iran on Friday of frustrating progress at a month-long conference of 188 nations seeking to strengthen the 1970 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

While the two countries are driven by very different motives and have spent much of the conference deriding each others’ positions, they could together end up forcing the conference to a stalemate, the activists said.

The meeting began May 2 and ends next Friday, leaving it one final week to reach an agreement.

“I think it’s a very real possibility that some states are going to try to make the clock run out,” said Rebecca Johnson, co-founder of the London-based Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy. “If this review ends in shambles ... the danger is that you will have confidence in the treaty eroding,” she told reporters.

The conference bogged down in wrangling for its first two and a half weeks, first over the agenda and then over the allocation of work among treaty committees. While the disputes played out behind the scenes, the activists blamed the delays squarely on Tehran and Washington.

The United States spent the first two weeks of the conference quietly seeking to block discussions of nuclear disarmament-related commitments and decisions reached at 1995 and 2000 NPT review conferences. reuters"