Non-nuclear states advance push for UN treaty to ban nukes

GENEVA – Despite arm-twisting and vocal opposition from nuclear powers like the United States, six non-nuclear countries are pressing forward with an effort to adopt a nuclear ban treaty through the United Nations.

The countries on Wednesday sent a draft text to world diplomats urging the U.N. General Assembly to convene a U.N. conference next year and work "to negotiate a legally-binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons" that would aim one day for their "total elimination."

The Associated Press obtained a copy of the text, to be considered at the U.N. in New York next month.

Austria, one of the six countries, expects a vote on the text by a U.N. committee around Nov. 1 that could send it to the assembly in December, said Austria's permanent representative in Geneva, Thomas Hajnoczi.