U.N. arms talks end without deal, U.S. and Russia blamed for deadlock.

U.N. arms talks end without deal, U.S. and Russia blamed for deadlock.(AA).U.N. negotiations to draft the first international treaty on the multi-billion-dollar arms trade have ended without a deal, with some diplomats blaming the United States for the deadlock. More than 170 countries have spent the past month in New York negotiating a treaty, which needed to be adopted by consensus, so any one country effectively could have vetoed a deal. Instead, no decision was taken on a draft treaty. But this leaves the door open for further talks and a draft arms-trade treaty could be brought to the 193-nation U.N. General Assembly and adopted with a two-thirds majority vote.
Diplomats said there could be a vote by the end of the year. “We feel that we could have agreed (a treaty). It is disappointing that more time is needed. But an arms-trade treaty is coming - not today - but soon. We’ve taken a big step forward,” said a spokesman for Britain’s delegation. One person every minute dies from armed violence around the world, and arms control activists say a convention is needed to prevent illicitly traded guns from pouring into conflict zones and fueling wars and atrocities. They cited conflicts in Syria and elsewhere as examples of why a treaty is necessary. While most U.N. member states favored a strong treaty, activists said there was a small minority of states, including Syria, North Korea, Iran, Egypt and Algeria, who loudly voiced opposition to global arms control throughout the negotiations.
But ultimately, arms-control activists blamed the United States and Russia for the inability to reach a decision on Friday, as both countries said there was not enough time left for them to clarify and resolve issues they had with the draft treaty. “Moving forward, President Obama must show the political courage required to make a strong treaty that contains strong rules on human rights a reality,” said Scott Stedjan, a senior policy advisor at Oxfam America, which fights poverty and other injustices. U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said Friday he was “disappointed” that member states failed to clinch an agreement after several years of preparatory work and four weeks of negotiations, calling it a “setback.”
But he vowed “steadfast” commitment to obtaining a “robust” arms trade treaty, noting that countries had agreed to pursue negotiations. “There is already considerable common ground and states can build on the hard work that has been done during these negotiations,” he added.One of the reasons this month’s negotiations are taking place is that the United States, the world’s biggest arms trader accounting for over 40 percent of global conventional arms transfers, reversed U.S. policy on the issue after Barack Obama became president and decided in 2009 to support a treaty. Some diplomats said Washington had refused to vote on the proposed text, saying it needed more time before the midnight deadline and was worried about a pushback from the U.S. Congress. But U.S. officials say Washington insisted in February on having the ability to veto a weak treaty. It wanted to protect U.S. domestic rights to bear arms - a sensitive issue in the United States that has been back in the national spotlight after a gunman opened fire in a movie theater a week ago, killing 12 people and wounding 58 other. A U.N. arms trade treaty would not “interfere with the domestic arms trade and the way a country regulates civilian possession,” the U.N. Office for Disarmament Affairs has said.Read the full story here.