Weapons of mass destruction

The announcement of the Russian diplomatic mission followed in response to the statements of the U.S. Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security, Bonnie Jenkins.

The United States is deliberately pushing back the deadline for the complete destruction of its own chemical arsenals, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said Thursday in a commentary on the January 23 Paris meeting of the so-called International Partnership Against Impunity for the Use of Chemical Weapons.

Romania presides the Main Committee II of the April 27 - May 22 Conference for the Evaluation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in New York.

Photo credit: (c) Bogdan MARAN / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

Iran's foreign minister said on Thursday that progress was made in "very difficult" nuclear talks with top U.S. and EU diplomats this week when possible solutions were discussed, sources who attended his briefing for Iranian media said.

Talks between US Secretary of State John Kerry, his Iranian counterpart and the EU foreign policy chief towards advancing troubled negotiations on Iran's nuclear drive started on Oct. 15

Syria's government said it has turned over all its chemical weapons and adhered to an international treaty, after US accusations that it had carried out several chlorine gas attacks.

Six world powers and Iran will hold new talks in New York on September 18, EU and U.S. officials said Sept. 4, as efforts intensify toward clinching a nuclear deal by a November deadline.

The talks will involve United States, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany and be led by European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, her spokesman Michael Mann said.

A joint mission of the United Nations and the global anti-chemical arms watchdog that has overseen the destruction of Syria's toxic gas stocks will shut down on Sept. 30 though a successor unit will continue investigating, the U.N. chief said.

All the toxic chemicals removed from Syria under a deal with the Syrian government to destroy its chemical weapons stockpile have been delivered to destruction facilities outside the country, the global chemical weapons watchdog said on Thursday.
   

Iran and six powers on Saturday extended nuclear talks until Nov. 24, in recognition that their differences were too big to reach a deal by the informal deadline of Sunday.

The decision was expected, with much of Friday spent on debating not obstacles standing in the way of an agreement but how long the add-on talks should go on and other related details.