WASHINGTON — After two decades of waffling, the United States on Friday announced its intention to join an international treaty banning land mines, without setting a time frame while working through possible complications on the Korean Peninsula.
Human-rights advocates applauded the progress but said the Obama administration should immediately commit to a ban and begin destroying its stockpile, while Republicans accused President Barack Obama of disregarding military leaders who want to maintain land mines in the U.S. arsenal.
The 15-year-old Ottawa Convention includes 161 nations that have signed on to prohibit the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of anti-personnel mines.
President Bill Clinton had a goal of joining the treaty, but the Bush administration pulled back amid objections from military leaders. Obama ordered up a review of the U.S. policy when he came to office five years ago, and a U.S. delegation announced the change in position Friday to a land-mine conference in Maputo, Mozambique.
