ISSUED BY: GCIS Communications Command Center
SOURCE: Reuters
26January2011 2:55pmEST
GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE:
(Reuters) - A deadlock in global negotiations on fissile material has increased the risk that nuclear weapons could spread or fall into the hands of violent political groups, the head of the United Nations warned on Wednesday.
Addressing the Conference on Disarmament, which has been unable to launch negotiations on any issue for more than a decade, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the impasse had "ominous implications for international security."
"The longer it persists, the graver the nuclear threat -- from existing arsenals, from the proliferation of such weapons and from their possible acquisition by terrorists," Ban told the United Nations-sponsored forum.
Halting production of bomb-making fissile material is widely seen as the next step in multilateral nuclear arms control. (read full report)
