The dispute between Iran and the United States reignited last week in New York at the opening of a United Nations conference to review progress on disarmament and non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.
Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad used the opportunity to deflect attention from its nuclear programme and attack the United States on its own record. He said that as the only country to use nuclear weapons offensively, the United States was ‘among the most hated in history’.

We know that nuclear disarmament is not a distant, unattainable dream. It is an urgent necessity, here and now. We are determined to achieve it

Reiterating president Obama’s vision set out in his speech in Prague last year for a world free of nuclear weapons, Hillary Clinton outlined steps the US has taken in this direction, but stated that ‘the United States will retain a nuclear deterrent for as long as nuclear weapons exist’. In a move to demonstrate greater transparency, the US announced the number of nuclear weapons in its stockpile – 5,113.

189 states are participating in the eighth review conference of the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT) this month. The last meeting in 2005 was widely acknowledged as a failure, after deadlock over how to address Iran’s nuclear programme and the lack of serious commitments to disarmament from nuclear armed states.

Created in 1968, the NPT rests on three pillars: recognised nuclear states (China, France, Russia, the UK and US) committed to ‘pursue negotiations in good faith’ towards disarmament of their arsenals; states without nuclear weapons agreed not to seek them; and all countries are guaranteed the right to peaceful use of nuclear technology.

In a speech to an international gathering of more than 800 peace activists in advance of the conference, UN secretary general Ban Ki-Moon set out his hopes for successful talks: ‘We know that nuclear disarmament is not a distant, unattainable dream. It is an urgent necessity, here and now. We are determined to achieve it.’

The following day, almost 15,000 people marched from Times Square to the UN Headquarters, calling for a world free of nuclear weapons.

On Tuesday, leaders of national peace movements delivered a petition of seven million signatures calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons to the president of the Review Conference, ambassador Libran Cabactulan of the Philippines.

The Quaker UN Office hosted a large reception for global peace organisations at Quaker House, which included UK delegates from the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and Friends from as far away as New Zealand. One of the Japanese attendees brought the famous Madonna statue, which was pulled intact from the rubble of Urakami Cathedral in Nagasaki.

Throughout the rest of the week other states and groupings set out their positions ahead of a month of negotiations.

EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton failed to make any new announcements in her speech on behalf of the 27 member states, hindered in part by France, who is resistant to any further reductions in its nuclear arsenal, and by the UK, which was unable to make any commitments until after the general election. The conference continues until the 28 May.

Joe Thwaites is a programme assistant for the Quaker UN Office in New York.