Menschheitsretter Stanislaw Petrow verstorben !

Am  19. Mai  2017  starb

Menschheitsretter Stanislaw Petrow 

In Funktion des leitenden Offiziers der Kommandozentrale der sowjetischen Satellitenüberwachung stufte Stanislaw Petrow
am 26. September 1983 einen vom "Frühwarnsystem"
gemeldeten Atom-Angriff der USA mit Interkontinentalraketen als Fehlalarm ein und verhinderte den "versehentlichen" Atomkrieg.

Bis in die 1990er Jahre wurde dieser "Vorfall" geheim gehalten.
Seither wurden immer mehr Fälle bekannt.

Und von seinem Tod erfuhren wir erst jetzt. Im September. 

EHRE SEINEM ANDENKEN

ICAN: Atomwaffen endlich verboten

Veröffentlicht am 7. Juli 2017
UN beschließen historisches Abkommen 7. Juli 2017

122 Staaten haben am Freitagmorgen bei den Vereinten Nationen in New York einen Vertrag zum Verbot von Atomwaffen verabschiedet.
Nach Jahrzehnten stockender Abrüstung senden sie eine klare Botschaft an die Atomwaffenstaaten: die internationale Staatengemeinschaft akzeptiert den bisherigen Sonderstatus der Atommächte nicht länger.
Das völkerrechtlich verbindliche Abkommen verbietet neben der Herstellung, dem Einsatz und Besitz auch die Drohung mit einem Nuklearschlag sowie die Stationierung von Atomwaffen in anderen Staaten.
Damit handelt künftig auch die Bundesregierung mit der nuklearen Teilhabe in der NATO und der Verfügung über US-Atomwaffen in Deutschland gegen geltendes Völkerrecht. Die Bundesregierung blieb aus diesem Grund und auf Druck der USA den Verhandlungen fern.

Friedensaktivisten sehen in dem Vertrag einen Durchbruch. „Das Verbot schließt eine völkerrechtliche Lücke, die trotz Ende des Kalten Krieges über Jahrzehnte offen klaffte“, sagt Sascha Hach von ICAN Deutschland. „Bio- und Chemiewaffen sind schon lange verboten, doch der Besitz von Atomwaffen war bis heute erlaubt. Dieses Paradox haben die atomwaffenfreien Länder nun beendet, indem sie den Aufstand gegen die Atommächte gewagt haben.“

Die Atomwaffenstaaten haben die Verhandlungen boykottiert, ebenso die meisten NATO-Staaten. „Der Vertrag wird trotzdem Wirkung entfalten“, sagt Xanthe Hall, Abrüstungsexpertin der IPPNW. „Er stigmatisiert den Besitz von Atomwaffen und erhöht den Druck zur Abrüstung. Außerdem verbessert sich der Schutz von Opfern von Atomwaffeneinsätzen und -tests durch konkrete Auflagen zu Opferhilfen und Umweltrehabilitation.“

Aber auch für die deutsche Nuklearpolitik hat der Vertrag Hall zufolge Konsequenzen. „Das Atomwaffenverbot läutet das Ende der Abschreckungspolitik ein. Die Stationierung von US-Atomwaffen auf deutschem Boden ist mit dem Vertrag nicht vereinbar. Diese völkerrechtliche Klärung einer seit Jahrzehnten juristisch hochumstrittenen Praxis, begrüßen wir ausdrücklich“.

Mit dem Vertrag vollzieht sich eine historische Wende in der Nuklearpolitik. Erstmals rücken die menschliche Sicherheit und die katastrophalen humanitären Folgen von Atomwaffen ins Zentrum der Diskussionen. Den Anstoß hierfür gaben vor allem die internationale Zivilgesellschaft und Staaten, die keine Atomwaffen besitzen.

Nukleare Abrüstung ist künftig keine Frage, die Atomwaffenstaaten ungestört unter sich ausmachen können. Die Blockadepolitik der Atommächte ist damit beendet. Der Vertragstext macht den Weg frei für ein Mitspracherecht aller Staaten.

Neben den Verbotsvorschriften schafft das Abkommen auch Rahmenbedingungen für ein umfassendes Kontroll- und Verifikationsregime. Bisher mussten sich nur Staaten, die keine Atomwaffen besitzen Sicherheitsvorkehrungen unterziehen.
Der Vertrag schafft nun die Grundlage, dass künftig auch Atomwaffenstaaten kontrolliert und verpflichtet werden, mit anderen Staaten in Abrüstungsfragen zusammenzuarbeiten. Ab jetzt muss eine atomwaffenfreie Welt gemeinsam verwirklicht werden.

Zugleich sorgt die Offenheit des Vertrages gegenüber Staaten, die zum jetzigen Zeitpunkt noch nicht beitreten können oder wollen, dafür, dass das Regelwerk lebendig bleibt. Somit kann der Geltungsbereich schrittweise erweitert werden.

„Es ist ein konstruktives Misstrauensvotum gegen den von Atomwaffenstaaten dominierten Sicherheitsrat, der in seiner Rolle als Hüter des Weltfriedens versagt hat“, unterstreicht Hach die geopolitische Dimension des Abkommens. „Doch die Bedeutung des Vertrages erschöpft sich nicht in der Rebellion gegen die Verweigerungshaltung und Arroganz der Mächtigen. Überdies werden die Türen weit geöffnet für eine gemeinsame und multilateral begründete Weltordnungspolitik.“

Nach Inkrafttreten des Vertrages ist der Besitz von Atomwaffen mit einem beträchtlichen diplomatischen Reputationsschaden verbunden. Dies wird den weltweiten Druck für Abrüstung massiv erhöhen.

Maßgebliche Initiatoren für die Aufnahme der Verhandlungen waren Österreich, Irland, Südafrika, Nigeria, Brasilien und Mexiko.

Der Vertrag wird nach aktuellem Stand ab dem 20. September 2017 in Anwesenheit der Außenminister bei der UN-Vollversammlung feierlich zur Unterschrift freigegeben. Notwendig sind 50 Ratifizierungen, damit der Vertrag 90 Tage später in Kraft tritt.

Mehr Informationen zu den Verbotsverhandlungen: www.nuclearban.de
Kontakt für die Medien:
Anne Balzer, ICAN Germany (Internationale Kampagne zur Abschaffung der Atomwaffen), Tel.: +1 (631) 464 1053, www.icanw.de

Angelika Wilmen: IPPNW Deutschland (Internationale Ärzte für die Verhütung des Atomkrieges e.V.) Tel. 030 69807415, Mobil 0162 205 79 43, www.ippnw.de

"Doomsday Clock" moves one minute away from midnight

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Adjusts Clock From 5 to 6 Minutes Before Midnight; Encouraging Progress Seen Around Globe in Both Key Threat Areas: Nuclear Weapons and Climate Change.

NEW YORK CITY///January 14, 2010///Citing a more "hopeful state of world affairs" in relation to the twin threats posed by nuclear weapons and climate change, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS) is moving the minute hand of its famous Doomsday Clock one minute away from midnight. It is now 6 minutes to midnight. The decision by the BAS Science and Security Board was made in consultation with the Bulletin's Board of Sponsors, which includes 19 Nobel Laureates.

BAS announced the Clock change today at a news conference in New York City broadcast live at http://www.TurnBackTheClock.org for viewing around the globe. The new BAS Web platform allows people in all nations to monitor and get involved in efforts to move the Doomsday Clock farther away from midnight.

In a statement supporting the decision to move the minute hand of the Doomsday Clock, the BAS Board said: "It is 6 minutes to midnight. We are poised to bend the arc of history toward a world free of nuclear weapons. For the first time since atomic bombs were dropped in 1945, leaders of nuclear weapons states are cooperating to vastly reduce their arsenals and secure all nuclear bomb-making material. And for the first time ever, industrialized and developing countries alike are pledging to limit climate-changing gas emissions that could render our planet nearly uninhabitable. These unprecedented steps are signs of a growing political will to tackle the two gravest threats to civilization--the terror of nuclear weapons and runaway climate change."

Created in 1947 by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the Doomsday Clock has been adjusted only 18 times prior to today, most recently in January 2007 and February 2002 after the events of 9/11. By moving the hand of the Clock away from midnight--the figurative end of civilization--the BAS Board of Directors is drawing attention to encouraging signs of progress. At the same time, the small increment of the change reflects both the threats that remain around the globe and the danger that governments may fail to deliver on pledged actions on reducing nuclear weapons and mitigating climate change.

The BAS statement explains: "This hopeful state of world affairs leads the boards of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists--which include 19 Nobel laureates--to move the minute hand of the Doomsday Clock back from five to six minutes to midnight. By shifting the hand back from midnight by only one additional minute, we emphasize how much needs to be accomplished, while at the same time recognizing signs of collaboration among the United States, Russia, the European Union, India, China, Brazil, and others on nuclear security and on climate stabilization."

The statement continues: "A key to the new era of cooperation is a change in the U.S. government's orientation toward international affairs brought about in part by the election of Obama. With a more pragmatic, problem-solving approach, not only has Obama initiated new arms reduction talks with Russia, he has started negotiations with Iran to close its nuclear enrichment program, and directed the U.S. government to lead a global effort to secure loose fissile material in four years. He also presided over the U.N. Security Council last September where he supported a fissile material cutoff treaty and encouraged all countries to live up to their disarmament and nonproliferation obligations under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty..."

Lawrence Krauss, co-chair, BAS Board of Sponsors, foundation professor, School of Earth and Space Exploration and Physics departments, associate director, Beyond Center, co-director, Cosmology Initiative, and director, New Origins Initiative, Arizona State University, said: "The time to begin to free ourselves from the terror of nuclear weapons and to slow drastic changes to our shared global environment is now. We encourage scientists to fulfill their dual responsibilities of increasing their own, as well as the public's understanding of these issues and to help lead the call to action. We urge leaders to fulfill the promise of a nuclear weapon-free world and to act now to slow the pace of climate change. Finally, we call on citizens everywhere to raise their voices and compel public action for a safer world now and for future generations. Even though we are encouraged by recent developments, we are mindful of the fact that the Clock is ticking."

Stephen Schneider, member, BAS Science and Security Board, professor of environmental biology and global change, Stanford University, co-director, Center for Environment Science and Policy of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and senior fellow, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, said: "We can no longer prevent global warming--it is upon us. Rapidly melting polar icecaps, acidification of the oceans, loss of coral reefs, longer droughts, more devastating wildfires, and sea level rise that threatens island nations and seacoasts everywhere are clear signs of change in Earth's climate. Disruptions of the monsoon seasons in India and China already threaten crop yields resulting in more frequent and severe food shortages than in the recent past... If we continue ‘business as usual' our habitat could be disrupted beyond recognition, with consequences for our way of life that we cannot now foresee. Without vigorous and immediate follow-up to the Copenhagen conference and well-conceived action we are all threatened by accelerating and irreversible changes to our planet..."

Jayantha Dhanapala, member, BAS Board of Sponsors, president, Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, and chair, 1995 UN Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Conference, said: "In the saga of human history civilizations have been threatened both by natural causes and by man-made folly. Some have survived by making the necessary rational responses to the challenges. Others have gone under leaving only their ruins. Today it is the entire planet that stands imperiled by the danger of nuclear weapons and the real risk of climate change inexorably threatening our ecosystem. Both impending disasters are within our capabilities to remedy. The opportunity must be seized now out of a recognition that these are global dangers that transcend national boundaries."

Pervez Hoodbhoy, member, BAS Board of Sponsors, professor of high energy physics, and head, Physics Department, Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan, said: "We may be at a turning point, where major powers realize that nuclear weapons are useless for war-fighting or even for deterrence. Threats to security are more likely to come from economic collapse, groups bent on terrorizing civilians, or from resource scarcity exacerbated by climate change and exploding populations, rather than from conflict between nuclear-armed superpowers. Against these new threats, nuclear weapons are a liability because their possession by a few countries stimulates desire in other countries and complicates things immensely."

Kennette Benedict, executive director, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, said: "The emerging trends in international cooperation will provide a basis for collaborative problem-solving for a safer world. But a handful of government officials, no matter how bold their vision, will not be able, on their own, to deal with the threats to civilization that we now face. Leaders and citizens around the world will need to summon the courage to overcome obstacles to nuclear security and climate protection. That is why we have created TurnBackTheClock.org to allow citizens around the world a means by which to get involved and to inspire leaders to take action."

RECOMMENDED ACTION STEPS

The BAS statement outlines the need for action on the following:

Developing new nuclear doctrines that disavow the use of existing nuclear weapons, reduce the launch readiness of U.S. and Russian nuclear forces, and remove them from the day-to-day operations of their militaries;
Finishing the job of consolidating and securing military and civilian nuclear material in Russia, the United States, and elsewhere and continuing to eliminate the excess;
Completing negotiations, signing and ratifying as soon as possible the new U.S.-Russia treaty providing for reductions in deployed nuclear warheads and delivery systems;
Upon signing of the treaty, immediately embarking upon new talks to further reduce the nuclear arsenals of Russia and the United States;
Completing the next review of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in May 2010 with commitments to weapons reduction and nuclear nonproliferation by both the nuclear haves and have-nots;
Implementing multinational management of the civilian nuclear energy fuel cycle with strict standards for safety, security, and nonproliferation of nuclear weapons, including eliminating reprocessing for plutonium separation;
Strengthening the International Atomic Energy Agency's capacity to oversee nuclear materials and technology development and transfer;
Adopting and fulfilling climate change agreements to reduce carbon dioxide emissions through tax incentives, harmonized domestic regulation and practice;
Transforming the coal power sector of the world economy to retire older plants; and
Vastly increasing public and private investments in alternatives to carbon-emitting energy sources, such as solar and wind, and in technologies for energy storage, and sharing the results worldwide.
ABOUT BAS AND THE CLOCK

Founded in 1945 by University of Chicago scientists who had helped develop the first atomic weapons in the Manhattan Project, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists subsequently created the Doomsday Clock in 1947 as a way to convey both the imagery of apocalypse (midnight) and the contemporary idiom of nuclear explosion (countdown to zero). The decision to move the minute hand of the Doomsday Clock is made by the Bulletin's Board of Directors in consultation with its Board of Sponsors, which includes 19 Nobel Laureates. The Clock has become a universally recognized indicator of the world's vulnerability to catastrophe from nuclear weapons, climate change, and emerging technologies in the life sciences.

CONTACT: Patrick Mitchell, (703) 276-3266 or pmitchell@hastingsgroup.com.

EDITOR'S NOTE: A full replay of the news event will be available on the Web at http://www.TurnBackTheClock.org http://www.thebulletin.org

Grand Ayatollah Monazeri against nuclear weapons

The iranian Grand Ayatollah Monazeri made a Fatwa against weapons of massdestruction.

WorldpeaceAward 2009: Barack Obama

Announcement
The Norwegian Nobel Committee

The Nobel Peace Prize for 2009

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The Committee has attached special importance to Obama's vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.

Obama has as President created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play. Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts. The vision of a world free from nuclear arms has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations. Thanks to Obama's initiative, the USA is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting. Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened.

Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future. His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world's population.

For 108 years, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has sought to stimulate precisely that international policy and those attitudes for which Obama is now the world's leading spokesman. The Committee endorses Obama's appeal that "Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility for a global response to global challenges."

Oslo, October 9, 2009

Diskussionen.de

Scientists for a Nuclear Weapons Free World

Scientists and engineers bear a heavy burden of responsibility to society for the creation of nuclear weapons.

The immense destructive power of these weapons was demonstrated on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and in over 2,000 atmospheric and underground nuclear tests on the lands of indigenous peoples.

Thermonuclear weapons are capable of destroying cities, countries and civilization. They could end intelligent life on Earth.

Humanity has been warned again and again of the perils of nuclear weapons and nuclear war.

We recall the Russell-Einstein Manifesto, issued on July 9, 1955. The Manifesto warned, “Here, then, is the problem which we present to you, stark and dreadful and inescapable: Shall we put an end to the human race; or shall mankind renounce war?”

Human fallibility and nuclear weapons are a dangerous and unacceptable mix. We rely upon human theories concerning nuclear weapons, such as the theory of nuclear deterrence, at our peril.

Since Nagasaki, humankind has been spared nuclear war far more by good fortune than by sound planning. This good fortune will not be possible to maintain indefinitely – particularly, as is foreseeable, if nuclear weapons continue to proliferate and fall into the hands of non-state extremist groups.

Nuclear weapons were created by humans, and it is our responsibility to eliminate them before they eliminate us and much of the life on our planet. The era of nuclear weapons must be brought to an end. A world without nuclear weapons is possible, realistic, necessary and urgent.

Therefore, we the undersigned scientists and engineers, call upon the leaders of the world, and particularly the leaders of the nine nuclear weapons states, to make a world free of nuclear weapons an urgent priority.

We further call on these leaders to immediately commence good faith negotiations, as required by the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the 1996 Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice, with the goal of achieving a Nuclear Weapons Convention for the phased, verifiable, irreversible and transparent elimination of nuclear weapons by the year 2020.

Finally, we call upon scientists and engineers throughout the world to cease all cooperation in the research, development, testing, production and manufacture of new nuclear weapons.

www.inesglobal.com August 6th, 2009

Jim Wurst: UN Sets Ground for Future Disarmament Battles

The UN General Assembly committee dealing with nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament issues ran a wait-and-see session in October 2008, with progress perhaps stymied by the upcoming presidential transition in the United States. The session, which ended four days before the U.S. election, debated and voted on 58 resolutions. Under the umbrella of nuclear disarmament, the committee usually considers numerous drafts on specific issues-such as operational status, security assurances, and nuclear-weapon-free zones-and three comprehensive, omnibus drafts each year.

Each session, countries or groups of countries present draft resolutions on a broad range of disarmament issues, including nuclear, biological, chemical, and space issues; conventional arms such as land mines and cluster munitions; as well as on the machinery by which the United Nations debates these issues, such as the Geneva-based Conference on Disarmament (CD). After three weeks of debate on the issues and the drafts, each draft is considered with the goal, usually unrealized, of adopting resolutions by consensus. The majority of drafts on nuclear issues usually pass with large majorities.

Three omnibus drafts on nuclear disarmament were introduced in the Disarmament and International Security Committee, also known as the First Committee, by the New Agenda Coalition (NAC), the Nonaligned Movement (NAM), and Japan. There were slight changes in the language of previous years; nearly all of the additional phrases focused on the nuclear-weapon states' responsibility to eliminate their arsenals under the Article VI disarmament provisions of the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT).

The NAC, comprised of Brazil, Egypt, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, and Sweden, continued its annual practice of presenting a draft reaffirming the international community's commitments to the NPT and the decisions taken by its nearly 190 states-parties at its once-every-five-years review conferences. In introducing the draft, Ambassador Leslie Gumbi of South Africa said, "The NAC continues to view these issues of nuclear disarmament and nuclear nonproliferation as being inextricably linked, and wishes to stress that both therefore require continuous and irreversible progress."

The text entitled "Towards a Nuclear-Weapon-Free World: Accelerating the Implementation of Nuclear Disarmament Commitments" had the most changes of the three omnibus drafts. Paragraphs were added elaborating on the responsibilities of states-parties to the NPT and the preferred outcome for the remainder of the current NPT review process. For the last two years, states-parties have been preparing for the next treaty review conference in 2010 and will hold their final preparatory session in April.

One addition, for example, calls on the nuclear-weapon states to "accelerate the implementation of the practical steps towards nuclear disarmament" agreed to at the 1995 Review and Extension Conference and the 2000 Review Conference. These measures, in particular the 13 practical steps agreed to in 2000 and a 1995 resolution calling for a zone free of weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East, have for the most part stalled. The 13 steps include negotiations on a fissile material cutoff treaty (FMCT), which is stuck in the deadlocked CD, and cuts in strategic and nonstrategic nuclear weapons. More broadly, the United States and France have been walking back from the 2000 commitments, calling them out of date and "suggestions" rather than commitments. Another addition called on the 2009 preparatory committee meeting to "identify and address specific aspects where urgent progress is required" to reach a nuclear-weapon-free world.

The resolution spearheaded by Japan and a range of co-sponsors from developed (Canada, Germany, Switzerland) and developing (Chile, Paraguay) countries was entitled "Renewed Determination Towards the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons." It contained a few new elements that highlight the responsibilities of the nuclear-weapon states, in particular the United States and Russia. One calls on the nuclear powers to "undertake reductions...in a transparent manner" and to increase transparency and confidence-building measures. Another addition calls on the United States and Russia to pursue "the conclusion of a legally binding successor" to START, which expires at the end of 2009. As usual, the bulk of the resolution focused on the range of treaty-based commitments by the nuclear-weapon and non-nuclear-weapon states required for the elimination of nuclear weapons. It was less explicit than the NAC draft in calling for a nuclear-weapon-free world, which is one reason the Japanese text has traditionally gained greater support in the voting.

Although the votes were mostly on track with last year, the NAC resolution did show a bit more progress in swaying abstainers. The 2008 vote was 141 to five, with six abstentions; in 2007 the same five voted no (France, India, Israel, North Korea, and the United States), but 13 had abstained. The movement from abstention to yes this year came from Australia and some NATO countries, including Greece, Hungary, and Poland. There was also a slight shift on the Japan-led draft. In 2007, three countries voted no: India, North Korea, and the United States. This year, those three were joined by Israel. The abstentions shifted from 10 last year to six this year.

The third draft, the NAM comprehensive text on "Nuclear Disarmament," contained every nuclear disarmament initiative endorsed by the group of developing countries. These include no-first-use and de-alerting of nuclear weapons, the creation of an ad hoc committee on disarmament at the CD, the entry into force of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), the negotiation of a "non-discriminatory, multilateral...and verifiable" FMCT, and a halt to qualitative improvements in nuclear weapons. Similar to the other two, this year's version has a couple of additions, each designed to sharpen the focus on the elimination of nuclear weapons. The 2008 vote was 104 to 44 with 21 abstentions, following the pattern of last year. Because the NAM draft goes far beyond generally agreed treaty language, it has the least success in gathering positive votes.

The United States voted against all three resolutions. In explaining its vote against the NAC draft, the U.S. representative said that although Washington supports the NPT, the keystone to the NAC draft, it could not support some of the elements, so it voted no. The Bush administration has not supported U.S. ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and maintains that parts of the 1995 and 2000 NPT commitments have been superseded by events. China abstained on the "Renewed Determination" text while voting in favor of the other two, saying the draft has elements that were "not feasible in current circumstances," without elaborating on which elements were not feasible.

As much as a trend can be read into the debate, it is that the non-nuclear-weapon states are sharpening their argument ahead of the third and final preparatory session for the 2010 NPT Review Conference: that the success of the NPT cannot be separated from real progress in nuclear disarmament.

Last year, the most dynamic resolution was on the operational status of nuclear weapons. The key line "calls for further practical steps to be taken to decrease the operational readiness of nuclear weapons systems, with a view to ensuring that all nuclear weapons are removed from high alert status." Co-sponsored by Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Sweden, and Switzerland, the text walks a fine line between calling for meaningful actions and not too greatly offending non-nuclear NATO countries. In its second year, there was little debate because the draft changed little. The vote was about the same as well. There were 134 yes votes and three votes against: France, the United Kingdom, and the United States. China and Russia abstained. In total, 32 countries abstained, largely NATO members and states applying for NATO membership. France, the United Kingdom, and the United States made a joint statement after the vote, saying they "disagree with the basic premise" of the resolution. They said their weapons "are subject to the most rigorous command and control systems" and "the relationship between alert levels and security is complex, and not reducible to such simple formulaic responses."

armscontrol.org PR

Obama in Berlin: "World free of nuclear weapons"

(wwj)