weapons Archives - Career Meaning

Post-Assad Syria faces critical test over eliminating chemical weapons

·March 8, 2025·3 min read

Briefing ambassadors, Izumi Nakamitsu, UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, welcomed steps taken by the country’s new authorities to engage with the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and work toward full compliance with international law. “Syria has started to take its steps towards this objective,” she said,...

Nuclear weapons are ‘one-way road to annihilation’ warns Guterres

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·February 25, 2025·1 min read

“The nuclear option is not an option at all,” he said, addressing the UN Conference on Disarmament in Geneva. “It is a one-way road to annihilation. We need to avoid this dead-end at all costs.” Arms race spreading to space Mr. Guterres warned delegates of heightened global security concerns, noting...

Syria: Chemical weapons watchdog hits reset button in Damascus, following productive meetings

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·February 8, 2025·2 min read

In a press release on Saturday the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said Director-General Fernando Arias and his team had met interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa and caretaker Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani, at their invitation – drawing a line under “11 years of obstruction” by the Assad...

UN marks Day of Remembrance for chemical weapons victims with renewed call for global action

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·November 30, 2024·2 min read

Commemorated on Saturday, the Day of Remembrance pays tribute to those killed or injured by chemical weapons and urges nations to ensure such horrors are never repeated. In his message, the Secretary-General highlighted a major milestone achieved last year: the complete destruction of declared stockpiles under the Chemical Weapons Convention....

Governments urged to ‘stop gambling with humanity’s future’ and eliminate nuclear weapons

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·September 27, 2024·5 min read

The High-Level Meeting was held to commemorate the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, observed annually on 26 September. “There should be no place for these devices of death in our world,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres. Nuclear ‘spectre’ looming He warned, however, that “not since the...

UN warns of continued prohibited weapons transfers to Ukraine, Russia

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·September 14, 2024·6 min read

Warning the Security Council, High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu said that since the last briefing on weapons transfers only two weeks ago, the provision of military assistance and transfer of arms and ammunition to the Ukrainian armed forces have continued in the context of Russia’s full-scale invasion of...

Over 700 a day dying from small arms fire; main ‘weapons of choice’ for criminals and terrorists

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·December 16, 2023·1 min read

That’s according to Izumi Nakamitsu, High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, who briefed the Security Council on Friday, quoting the latest figures available. “This is more than 700 people a day, or one person dying from small arms every two minutes”, she said. She added that “small arms and light weapons...

World News in Brief: ‘Horrifying’ attack on Ukrainian village, autonomous weapons ban, Sudan crisis

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·October 6, 2023·3 min read

“The images arriving from the locality, home to just above 300 people, are absolutely horrifying,” UN Humanitarian Coordinator Denise Brown said in a statement issued shortly after the attack. Speaking on behalf of the UN and the humanitarian community, she expressed condolences to the bereaved families. “Our thoughts are also...

Ukraine: Concerns mount over influx of weapons and growing civilian casualties

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·June 30, 2023·2 min read

Since her last briefing in May, said Izumi Nakamitsu, the High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, reports from open sources indicate an influx in the transfer of heavy conventional weapons, including battle tanks, combat aircraft, artillery and missile systems. “There are reports that the supply of arms and ammunition has accelerated...

Guterres: Eliminate ‘weapons of terror’ to avert future chemical warfare

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·May 15, 2023·2 min read

“We cannot go backwards,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in a video message addressing the fifth Special Session of the States parties to review the operation of the Chemical Weapons Convention. ‘Senseless weapons of terror’ “The use of chemical weapons has persisted; each use threatens to reverse our hard-won gains,”...

International system crucial to countering threat of weapons diversion, Security Council hears

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·April 11, 2023·2 min read

“Emanating from any arms transfer is the inherent risk of diversion of the equipment to unauthorized end users,” said Izumi Nakamitsu, UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs. Addressing the Council during the first open meeting of Russia’s month-long presidency – and during which many delegates referenced the ongoing conflict in...

Syria: Chemical weapons pose unacceptable threat, and are a ‘danger to us all’

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·January 9, 2023·1 min read

Speaking on behalf of High Representative Izumi Nakamitsu, her deputy, Adedeji Ebo, said that “the absence of accountability” for the previous use of chemical weapons by combatants in Syria’s long-running civil war, “is a threat to international peace and security and a danger to us all”. “It is, therefore, imperative...