UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted a U.S.-drafted resolution Thursday that affirms many of the steps President Barack Obama plans to pursue as part of his vision for an eventual “world without nuclear weapons.”
In a first for a U.S. president, Obama presided over the 15-member meeting, joined by such leaders as Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Chinese President Hu Jintao and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
The meeting marked only the fifth head-of-state summit in U.N. history, and Obama’s presence was intended to signal the importance of the issue for the administration.
Addressing the leaders, Obama said nuclear weapons pose a “fundamental threat” to the world.
“Just one nuclear weapon exploded in a city — be it New York or Moscow, Tokyo or Beijing, London or Paris — could kill hundreds of thousands of people and would badly destabilize our security, our economies and our very way of life,” he said.
While the resolution passed on a 15-0 vote, the United States failed to get approval from China and Russia to cite Iran and North Korea by name. In a diplomatic fudge, the text therefore refers only to Security Council resolutions concerning the countries. Obama mentioned the two countries by name in his speech, saying he was not trying to single out any country but that “international law is not an empty promise.”
Obama is pressing for a new worldwide treaty to halt production of weapons-grade uranium and plutonium and strengthen the global Non- Proliferation Treaty, which has limited the spread of nuclear weapons for decades but is in danger of fraying.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy was more pointed than Obama in his criticism of Tehran, listing offers made by world powers to Iran in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and this year, with no real response from the Islamic Republic.
“There comes a time when stubborn facts will compel us to take a decision if we want a world without nuclear weapons,” he said.
Brown also declared that “far tougher sanctions” must be imposed on Iran if it continues to enrich uranium in defiance of previous Security Council resolutions.
Although Libya has a seat on the Security Council, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi did not appear at the meeting, the only leader of a member country not to do so.
The session of the Security Council, whose rotating chair is held this month by the United States, came amid a two-day U.N. conference that will strongly push for a worldwide ban on nuclear tests, officials said.
For the first time in a decade, a U.S. delegation will attend the biennial U.N. session on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which has been ratified by 149 countries but lacks the support of nine critical governments, including several declared and undeclared nuclear powers.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is leading the delegation, is expected to commit the U.S. government to trying to ratify the treaty, which was defeated in the U.S. Senate in 1999.
Critics say the Obama administration is placing too much hope in treaties that may not win sufficient ratifications for years or be fully verifiable.
“They are overselling this, overselling how likely it is to come into force and how likely it is to be beneficial if it did,” said Henry Sokolski, executive director of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center.
Gaining Senate ratification of the Test Ban Treaty will be critical to Obama’s agenda. Indonesia has pledged to ratify the treaty if the U.S. does so, and China could quickly follow suit, according to analysts.
Other holdouts include Egypt, Israel, India, Pakistan, Iran and North Korea.
