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U.N. overwhelmingly approves global arms trade treaty
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The 193-nation U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved the first treaty on the global arms trade, which seeks to regulate the $70 billion business in conventional arms and keep weapons out of the hands of human rights abusers.
There were 155 votes in favor, 3 against and 22 abstentions. Venezuela - which had said it planned to abstain - Zimbabwe, Dominican Republic, Sierra Leone and Vanuatu were not allowed to vote because they were in arrears on their U.N. dues.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the vote, saying the treaty "will make it more difficult for deadly weapons to be diverted into the illicit market and ... will help to keep warlords, pirates, terrorists, criminals and their like from acquiring deadly arms."
Iran, Syria and North Korea last week prevented a treaty-drafting conference at U.N. headquarters from reaching the required consensus to adopt the treaty. That left delegations that support it no choice but to turn to a General Assembly vote to adopt it.
