“The decision to convene a conference in two years time to move towards a Middle East zone free of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction is a major achievement, after 15 years of inaction,”
BASIC Progam Director Anne Penketh quoted by Reuters.
Read the full article: http://in.reuters.com/article/idINIndia-48899220100529
May has been an intense and hectic month for BASIC and for nuclear diplomacy. The month-long global Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference (NPT RevCon) in New York draws to a close today.
“The Review Conference snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.” said BASIC Program Director Anne Penketh, quoted in The Huffington Post.
Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/evelyn-leopold/dispute-over-israeli-arms_b_592898.html
There was a rare and powerful burst of euphoria at the UN on the final day of the NPT Review Conference, when the representatives of about 180 states agreed on a final document without a vote.
Yesterday’s announcement that the government would stick to a limit of 225 nuclear warheads has been rightly welcomed by BASIC (the British American Security Information Council) as a next step in transparency and disarmament.
Mary Riddell references BASIC in her commentary. Read more:
The new British government\’s announcement today of a total limit of 225 nuclear warheads is to be welcomed as a next step in the transparency and disarmament process, said Paul Ingram, Executive Director of the British American Security Information Council (BASIC).
Day 17: The NPT Review Conference president, Libran Cabactulan, has moved towards the endgame by submitting a draft final document which contains both a treaty review and a forward-looking action plan covering all three pillars of the treaty (disarmament, non-proliferation and the peaceful use of nuclear energy).
Anne Penketh, BASIC Program Director, backed Egypt's proposals for a Middle East international conference to work towards a Middle East nuclear weapons free zone at a side event on the margins of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference.
The May 21 event was hosted by Greenpeace whose Israeli representative, Sharon Dolev, described how she has been trying to raise awareness for nuclear disarmament in Israel, where discussion of that country's presumed nuclear arsenal of up to 200 weapons remains taboo.