After a month of bickering, the 188 signatories to the global pact against atomic weapons failed today to agree on new steps to combat the danger of a nuclear holocaust and many blamed the United States and Iran.
The review of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty was characterized by divisive debates over North Korea, Iran's nuclear enrichment ambitions, Israel's presumed atomic arsenal and US plans for new and improved atomic weapons.
When the conference began at the United Nations in New York on May 2nd, countries had hoped to agree on a plan to repair loopholes in the treaty that enable countries to acquire sensitive atomic technology and to hear from Washington and the four other NPT members with nuclear weapons that they remained committed to disarming.
But it quickly descended into procedural bickering, led by the United States, Iran and Egypt, before failing to reach any agreement today, the last day of the conference.
In a clear swipe at Washington, which angered developing countries by refusing to reaffirm previous pledges to scrap its own nuclear arsenal, Canada's chief delegate blasted countries that tossed aside earlier commitments.
The United States has denied undermining the conference. Privately, US officials put the blame on Iran and Egypt, who they said hijacked the block of non-aligned nations in an attempt to focus criticism on the United States and Israel.
US officials said that in the wake of the attacks of September 11th, 2001, the most urgent issue was not disarmament but proliferation and the possibility that terrorists could get their hands on atomic weapons.
"Much has changed since we last met five years ago," Ambassador Jackie Sanders told the conference. In addition to North Korea withdrawing from the NPT and announcing it has nuclear weapons, Iran appears to want the bomb, she said.
"Iran's nuclear weapons program, previously shrouded in secrecy and deceit, has been exposed, as have Iran's violations of its (NPT) obligations," she said.
The delegates had been trying to reach agreement in three committees that cover the three pillars of the accord - disarmament, verification of safeguards on national nuclear programs and the peaceful use of atomic energy. The committees failed to reach any conclusions and the conference could not reach consensus on a final statement.
Nine countries possess some 30,000 atomic weapons, nearly all of them in the United States and Russia - enough to destroy the planet many times over. And dozens more nations could build a bomb if they wanted to.
By signing the treaty, the acknowledged nuclear powers, the United States, Russia, Britain, China and France, pledged to eventually scrap their deadly arsenals but have not done so. Israel is assumed to have around 200 nuclear weapons but neither confirms nor denies it. Like atomic-armed India and Pakistan, Israel has never signed the NPT. North Korea, which says it has the bomb, withdrew from the treaty in 2002.