Nine States Possess over 15,000 Nuclear Weapons – EP

Brussels, 27 Muharram 1438/28 October 2016 (MINA) -The European Parliament said on Thursday that the worsening relations between nuclear-armed states, such as Russia and the US or India and Pakistan, but also Russia’s threats to use nuclear weapons or to deploy them to more territories in Europe, are making the EU’s security environment ever more tense.

In a resolution passed by 415 votes to 124, the EP called on these states to reduce nuclear weapons, move them away from deployment into storage and to diminish their role in military doctrines, KUNA reported.

It noted that “as of January 2016 nine states – US, Russia, UK, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea possessed a total of approximately 15,395 nuclear weapons”.

The resolution also condemned the latest nuclear test conducted by North Korea on 9 September.

It welcomed the suggestion to convene a UN conference in 2017 to negotiate a legally-binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons. (T/R07/R01)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)