UN committee advances five texts on weapons of mass destruction

The UN General Assembly’s First Committee has approved three draft resolutions and two decisions on chemical, biological and other weapons of mass destruction, including texts condemning chemical weapons use and addressing terrorist access to such weapons.

The chemical-weapons draft passed by 155 votes to 10, with 15 abstentions. It would reaffirm the Assembly’s condemnation of chemical weapons use and refer to reports of the presence of the riot-control agent CS in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, as well as the use of a toxic chemical as a weapon against Alexei Navalny in Russia. The account does not identify who was responsible for either incident.

A separate draft on the 1925 Geneva Protocol passed 181–0, with Israel and the United States abstaining. A resolution on preventing terrorists from acquiring weapons of mass destruction passed 181–1, with the United States voting against and no abstentions.

The committee also approved, without a vote, a decision to place the biological and toxin weapons convention on the General Assembly’s next-session agenda. A second decision, to add preventing terrorists’ acquisition of radioactive sources to that agenda, passed 182–0, with Iran abstaining.

Committee approval advances the texts for consideration by the General Assembly; it is not itself adoption by the full Assembly. The UN’s meeting coverage is for information media and is not an official record.