Less than a day after Obama’s election, the US backed a UN
treaty to regulate arms.
Obama delayed the talks during election season.
Reuters reported:
Hours after U.S. President Barack Obama was re-elected, the
United States backed a U.N. committee’s call on Wednesday to renew debate over
a draft international treaty to regulate the $70 billion global conventional
arms trade.
U.N. delegates and gun control activists have complained
that talks collapsed in July largely because Obama feared attacks from
Republican rival Mitt Romney if his administration was seen as supporting the
pact, a charge Washington denies.
The month-long talks at U.N. headquarters broke off after
the United States – along with Russia and other major arms producers – said it
had problems with the draft treaty and asked for more time.
But the U.N. General Assembly’s disarmament committee moved
quickly after Obama’s win to approve a resolution calling for a new round of
talks March 18-28. It passed with 157 votes in favor, none against and 18
abstentions.
U.N. diplomats said the vote had been expected before
Tuesday’s U.S. presidential election but was delayed due to Superstorm Sandy,
which caused a three-day closure of the United Nations last week.
The Obama Administration insists they will not accept any
treaty that infringes on the constitutional rights of American citizens.
Conventional Arms: Conventional weapons include small arms and light weapons, sea and land mines, as well as (non-nuclear) bombs, shells, rockets, missiles and cluster munitions. These weapons use explosive material based on chemical energy, as opposed to nuclear energy in nuclear weapons.
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