"We are only a step away from nuclear destruction..."

"We are only a step away from nuclear destruction..."

Guterres said this at the opening of a long-delayed high-level conference to revise the landmark 50-year-old Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) with the aim of finally achieving a world without nuclear weapons, AP reports.

The UN Secretary General specifically cited the war in Ukraine and the threat of nuclear weapons in conflicts in the Middle East and Asia as risks, two regions "that are on the verge of disaster" and pointed out that the meeting is being held "at a critical moment for our collective peace and security", at a time of nuclear danger not seen since the height of the Cold War.

According to him, the conference is "an opportunity to adopt measures that will help to avoid catastrophe and to see humanity on a new path without nuclear weapons".

Guterres said that nearly 13.000 nuclear weapons are in arsenals around the world, and that countries seeking "false security" are spending hundreds of billions of dollars on "doomsday weapons".

"All this is happening at a time when the risks of proliferation are growing and the mechanisms to prevent escalation are weakening. Crises with nuclear overtones are simmering from the Middle East and the Korean peninsula to Ukraine," Guterres said.

He called on the conference participants to urgently strengthen and reaffirm the 77-year-old treaty against the use of nuclear weapons, to work tirelessly to eliminate nuclear weapons with new commitments to reduce arsenals, and to promote the peaceful use of nuclear technology.

"Future generations are counting on your commitment to bring us back from the brink. This is our moment to face this fundamental test and end the threat of nuclear annihilation once and for all," Guterres told the conference participants.

U.S. President Joseph Biden said today that the US is ready to talk with Russia about a new arms control agreement that would replace New START, but only if Moscow shows that it is ready to continue teamwork.

"Even at the height of the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union were able to work together to uphold our shared responsibility to ensure strategic stability," Biden said, pointing out that China also has a responsibility as a nuclear-armed state to engage in negotiations that will "reduce the risk of miscalculations" and address destabilizing military dynamics.

Meanwhile, the head of Iran's atomic energy sector, Mohammad Eslami, said Iran has always said its nuclear program is for civilian purposes only.

India and Pakistan are nuclear powers that have not joined the NPT, as has North Korea, which ratified the treaty but later announced withdrawal. Israel, which is not a signatory to the treaty, is believed to have a nuclear arsenal, but has neither confirmed nor denied it.