UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations chief warned the world Monday that “humanity is just one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation,” citing the war in Ukraine, nuclear threats in Asia and the Middle East and many other factors.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres gave the dire warning at the opening of the long-delayed high-level meeting to review the landmark 50-year-old treaty aimed at preventing the spread of nuclear weapons and eventually achieving a nuclear-free world.
The danger of increasing nuclear threats and a nuclear catastrophe was also raised by the United States, Japan, Germany, the UN nuclear chief and many other opening speakers at the meeting to review progress and agree to future steps to implement the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, known as the NPT.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said North Korea is preparing to conduct its seventh nuclear test, Iran “has either been unwilling or unable” to accept a deal to return to the 2015 nuclear agreement aimed at reining in its nuclear program, and Russia is “engaged in reckless, dangerous nuclear saber-rattling” in Ukraine.
He cited Russian President Vladimir Putin’s warning after its Feb. 24 invasion that any attempt to interfere would lead to “consequences you have never seen,” emphasizing that his country is “one of the most potent nuclear powers.”
This is contrary to assurances given to Ukraine of its sovereignty and independence when in gave up its Soviet-era nuclear weapons in 1994, Blinken said, and sends “the worst possible message” to any country thinking it needs nuclear weapons to defend itself and deter aggression.
Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said divisions in the world since the last review conference in 2015, which ended without a consensus document, have become greater, stressing that Russia’s threat to use nuclear weapons in the Ukraine war has contributed “to worldwide concern that yet another catastrophe by nuclear weapon use is a real possibility.”
Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock accused Russia of “brutally violating the assurances” it gave Ukraine in 1994 and said Moscow’s “reckless nuclear rhetoric” since its invasion of its smaller neighbor “is putting at risk everything the NPT has achieved in five decades.”
Most recently, Blinken said Russia seized Europe’s largest nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhya and is using it as a military base to fire at Ukrainians, “knowing that they can’t and won’t shoot back because they might accidentally strike a nuclear reactor or highly radioactive waste in storage.” He said this brings the notion of having “a human shield to an entirely different and horrific level.”
International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi said the Ukraine conflict is “so grave that the specter of a potential nuclear confrontation, or accident, has raised its terrifying head again.”
He warned that at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear plant “the situation is becoming more perilous by the day,” and he urged all countries to help make possible his visit to the plant with a team of IAEA safety and security experts, saying his efforts for the past two months have been unsuccessful.
Guterres told many ministers, officials and diplomats gathered in the General Assembly Hall that the month-long review conference is taking place “at a time of nuclear danger not seen since the height of the Cold War.”
The conference is “an opportunity to hammer out the measures that will help avoid certain disaster, and to put humanity on a new path toward a world free of nuclear weapons,” the secretary-general said.
But Guterres warned that “geopolitical weapons are reaching new highs,” almost 13,000 nuclear weapons are in arsenals around the world, and countries seeking “false security” are spending hundreds of billions of dollars on “doomsday weapons.”
“All this at a time when the risks of proliferation are growing and guardrails to prevent escalation are weakening,” he said, “And when crises — with nuclear undertones — are festering from the Middle East and the Korean Peninsula to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, and to many other factors around the world.”
Guterres called on conference participants to take several actions: urgently reinforce and reaffirm “the 77-year-old norm against the use of nuclear weapons,” work relentlessly toward eliminating nuclear weapons with new commitments to reduce arsenals, address “the simmering tensions in the Middle Est and Asia” and promote the peaceful use of nuclear technology.
“Future generations are counting on your commitment to step back from the abyss,” he implored the ministers and diplomats. “This is our moment to meet this fundamental test and lift the cloud of nuclear annihilation once and for all.”
Japan’s Kishida, recalling his home city of Hiroshima where the first atomic bomb was dropped in August 1945, echoed many of Guterres’ points saying the path to a world without nuclear weapons has become harder but “giving up is not an option.”
In force since 1970, the Nonproliferation Treaty known as the NPT has the widest adherence of any arms control agreement, with some 191 countries that are members.
Under its provisions, the five original nuclear powers — the United States, China, Russia (then the Soviet Union), Britain and France — agreed to negotiate toward eliminating their arsenals someday and nations without nuclear weapons promised not to acquire them in exchange for a guarantee to be able to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
India and Pakistan, which didn’t join the NPT, went on to get the bomb. So did North Korea, which ratified the pact but later announced it was withdrawing. Non-signatory Israel is believed to have a nuclear arsenal but neither confirms nor denies it. Nonetheless, the treaty has been credited with limiting the number of nuclear newcomers (US President John F. Kennedy once foresaw as many as 20 nuclear-armed nations) as a framework for international cooperation on disarmament.
The meeting, which ends Aug. 26, aims to generate a consensus on next steps, but expectations are low for a substantial — if any — agreement. There were 133 speakers as of Monday, plus dozens of side events.
The NPT’s five-year review was supposed to take place in 2020, when the world already faced plenty of crisis, but was delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Patricia Lewis, former director of the UN Institute for Disarmament Research who is now in charge of international security programs at the international affairs think tank Chatham House in London, said “President Putin’s threats to use nuclear weapons have shocked the international community.”
Russia is not only an NPT signatory but a depository for treaty ratifications and in January it joined the four other nuclear powers in reiterating the statement by former US President Ronald Reagan and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev that “a nuclear war can never be won and must never be fought,” she told The Associated Press.
Lewis said countries participating in the review conference will have a difficult decision to make.
To support the treaty and what it stands for, “governments will have to address Russia’s behavior and threats,” she said. “On the other hand, to do so risks dividing the treaty members — some of whom have been persuaded by Russia’s propaganda or at least are not as concerned, for example, as the NATO states.”
And “Russia no doubt will strenuously object to being named in statements and any outcome documents,” Lewis said.
UN chief warns world is one step from ‘nuclear annihilation’
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UN chief warns world is one step from ‘nuclear annihilation’
- Secretary-General Antonio Guterres gave the dire warning at the opening of the high-level meeting to review the landmark 50-year-old Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty
- US Secretary of State Antony Blinken echoed the warning, citing the "nuclear saber-rattling" of Russia, Iran and North Korea as reckless and dangerous
Senegal leader ‘did everything’ to bring Sahel trio back to regional group
- The three Sahel countries quit the Economic Community of West African States at the beginning of the year, accusing the bloc of failing in the fight against terrorism
DAKAR: Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye said he had “done everything possible” to bring junta-led Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger back into west Africa’s ECOWAS regional group, to no avail.
The three Sahel countries quit the Economic Community of West African States at the beginning of the year, accusing the bloc of failing in the fight against terrorism.
The breakaway countries have formed their own Alliance of Sahel States, or AES, turning away from former colonial power France and pivoting toward Russia.
In July last year, Faye was appointed by ECOWAS as a mediator for the three Sahel countries, which are now led by juntas that seized power in recent coups.
“I pleaded for people to come together around a table and talk, to preserve the chances of maintaining a strong subregional organization,” Faye told local media during a marathon four-hour interview.
“But the fact remains that these countries, like others, are sovereign. They are free to make their own choices.
“All we owe them is to respect their will, knowing that we have done everything possible to reintegrate them” into ECOWAS, he said.
As for the new relationship between Senegal and former colonial power France, Faye insisted that Paris “remains an important partner for Senegal on all levels.”
Senegal is negotiating the departure of French troops from its territory by the end of this year.
“It happens that a country decides to redirect its trajectory at a certain point in its history. And that’s what happened with the French military presence in the country,” said Faye.
Last month, several facilities used by the French army in Dakar were returned to Senegal — the first to be transferred as part of the withdrawal.
How aid cuts have brought Afghanistan’s fragile health system to its knees
- Forty percent of the foreign aid given to Afghanistan came from USAID prior to the agency’s shutdown
- Experts say pregnant women, children, and the displaced will be hardest hit by the abrupt loss of funding
LONDON: Amid sweeping foreign aid cuts, Afghanistan’s healthcare system has been left teetering on the brink of collapse, with 80 percent of World Health Organization-supported services projected to shut down by June, threatening critical medical access for millions.
The abrupt closure of the US Agency for International Development, which once provided more than 40 percent of all humanitarian assistance to the impoverished nation of 40 million, dealt a devastating blow to an already fragile health system.
Researcher and public health expert Dr. Shafiq Mirzazada said that while it was too early to declare Afghanistan’s health system was in a state of collapse, the consequences of the aid cuts would be severe for “the entire population.”
“WHO funding is only one part of the system,” he told Arab News, pointing out that Afghanistan’s health sector is fully funded by donors through the Afghanistan Resilience Trust Fund, known as the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund before August 2021.
Established in 2002 after the US-led invasion, the ARTF supports international development in Afghanistan. Since the Taliban retook Kabul in August 2021, the fund has focused on providing essential services through UN agencies and nongovernmental organizations.
However, this approach has struggled to meet the growing needs, as donor fatigue and political challenges compound funding shortages.
“A significant portion of the funding goes to health programs through UNICEF and WHO,” Mirzazada said, referring to the UN children’s fund. “Primarily UNICEF channels funds through the Health Emergency Response project.”
Yet even those efforts have proven insufficient as facilities close at an alarming rate.
By early March, funding shortages forced 167 health facilities to close across 25 provinces, depriving 1.6 million people of care, according to the WHO.
Without urgent intervention, experts say 220 more facilities could close by June, leaving a further 1.8 million Afghans without primary care — particularly in northern, western and northeastern regions.
The closures are not just logistical setbacks, they represent life-or-death outcomes for millions.
“The consequences will be measured in lives lost,” Edwin Ceniza Salvador, the WHO’s representative in Afghanistan, said in a statement.
“These closures are not just numbers on a report. They represent mothers unable to give birth safely, children missing lifesaving vaccinations, entire communities left without protection from deadly disease outbreaks.”
Bearing the brunt of Afghanistan’s healthcare crisis are the most vulnerable populations, including pregnant women, children in need of vaccinations and those living in overcrowded displacement camps, where they are exposed to infectious and vaccine-preventable diseases.
Because Afghanistan’s health system was heavily focused on maternal and child care, Mirzazada said: “Any disruption will primarily affect women and children — including, but not limited to, vaccine-preventable diseases, as well as antenatal, delivery and postnatal services.
“We’re already seeing challenges, with outbreaks of measles in the country. The number of deaths due to measles is rising.”
This trend will be exacerbated by declining immunization rates.
“Children will face more diseases as vaccine coverage continues to decline,” Mirzazada said.
“We can already see a reduction in vaccine coverage. The Afghanistan Health Survey 2018 showed basic vaccine coverage at 51.4 percent, while the recent UNICEF-led Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey shows it has dropped to 36.6 percent in 2022-23.”
IN NUMBERS:
• 14.3 millions Afghans in need of medical assistance
• $126.7 millions Funding needed for healthcare
The WHO recorded more than 16,000 suspected measles cases, including 111 deaths, in the first two months of 2025 alone.
It warned that with immunization rates critically low — 51 percent for the first dose of the measles vaccine and 37 percent for the second — children were at heightened risk of preventable illness and death.
Meanwhile, midwives have reported dire conditions in the nation’s remaining facilities. Women in labor are arriving too late for lifesaving interventions due to clinic closures.
Women and girls are disproportionately bearing the brunt of these health challenges in great part due to Taliban policies.
Restrictions on women’s freedom of movement and employment have severely limited health access, while bans on education for women and girls have all but eliminated training for future female health workers.
In December, the Taliban closed all midwifery and nursing schools.
Wahid Majrooh, founder of the Afghanistan Center for Health and Peace Studies, said the move “threatens the capacity of Afghanistan’s already fragile health system” and violated international human rights commitments.
He wrote in the Lancet Global Health journal that “if left unaddressed, this restriction could set precedence for other fragile settings in which women’s rights are compromised.”
“Afghanistan faces a multifaceted crisis marked by alarming rates of poverty, human rights violations, economic instability and political deadlock, predominantly affecting women and children,” the former Afghan health minister said.
“Women are denied their basic rights to education, work and, to a large extent, access to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. The ban on midwifery schools limits women’s access to health, erodes their agency in health institutions and eradicates women role models.”
Majrooh described the ban on midwifery and nursing education as “a public health emergency” that “requires urgent action.”
Afghanistan is facing one of the world’s most severe humanitarian crises, with 22.9 million people — roughly half its population — requiring urgent aid to access healthcare, food and clean water.
Critical funding shortfalls and operational barriers now jeopardize support for 3.5 million children aged 6 to 59 months facing acute malnutrition, according to UN figures, as aid groups grapple with the intersecting challenges of economic collapse, climate shocks and Taliban restrictions.
The provinces of Kabul, Helmand, Nangarhar, Herat and Kandahar bear the heaviest burden, collectively accounting for 42 percent of the nation’s malnutrition cases. As a result, aid organizations are struggling to meet the needs of malnourished children, with recent cuts in foreign aid forcing Save the Children to suspend lifesaving programs.
The UK-based charity has closed 18 health facilities and faces the potential closure of 14 more unless new funding is secured. These 32 clinics provided critical care to 134,000 children in January alone, including therapeutic feeding and immunizations, it said in a statement.
“With more children in need of aid than ever before, cutting off lifesaving support now is like trying to extinguish a wildfire with a hose that’s running out of water,” Gabriella Waaijman, chief operating officer at Save the Children International, said.
As well as the hunger crisis, Afghanistan is battling outbreaks of malaria, measles, dengue, polio and Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever. The WHO said that without functioning health facilities, efforts to control these diseases would be severely hindered.
The risk may be higher among internally displaced communities. Four decades of conflict have driven repeated waves of forced displacement, both within Afghanistan and across its borders, while recurring natural disasters have worsened the crisis.
About 6.3 million people remain displaced within the country, living in precarious conditions without access to adequate shelter or essential services, according to the UN refugee agency, UNHCR.
Mass deportations have compounded the crisis. More than 1.2 million Afghans returning from neighboring countries such as Pakistan in 2024 are now crowded into makeshift camps with poor sanitation. This had fueled outbreaks of measles, acute watery diarrhea, dengue fever and malaria, the UNHCR said in October.
With limited healthcare access, other diseases are also spreading rapidly.
Respiratory infections and COVID-19 are surging among returnees, with 293 suspected cases detected at border crossings in early 2025, according to the WHO’s February Emergency Situation Report.
Cases of acute respiratory infections, including pneumonia, have also risen, with 54 cases reported, primarily in children under the age of 5.
The WHO said that returnees settling in remote areas faced “healthcare deserts,” where clinics had been shuttered for years and where there were no aid pipelines.
Water scarcity in 30 provinces exacerbates acute watery diarrhea risks, while explosive ordnance contamination and road accidents cause trauma cases that overwhelm understaffed facilities.
Mirzazada said that “while the ARTF has some funds, they won’t be enough to sustain the system long term.”
To prevent the collapse of Afghanistan’s health system and keep services running, he urged the country’s Taliban authorities to contribute to its funding.
“Government contributions have been very limited in the past and now even more so,” he said.
“However, the recently developed health policy for Afghanistan mentions internally sourced funding for the health system. If that happens under the current or future authorities, it could help prevent collapse.”
He also called on Islamic and Arab nations to increase their funding efforts.
“Historically, Western countries have been the main funders of the ARTF,” Mirzazada said. “The largest contributors were the US, Germany, the European Commission and other Western nations.
“Islamic and Arab countries have contributed very little. That could change and still be channeled through the UN system, as NGOs continue to deliver services on behalf of donors and the government.
“This approach could remain in place until a solid, internally funded health system is established.”
Zelensky meets European military leaders to plan for a peacekeeping force
- UK Ministry of Defense said that officials addressed the structure, size and composition of any future “reassurance force”
- Britain has been promoting the idea of a European-led peacekeeping force for Ukraine
KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met the leaders of the British and French armed forces in Kyiv Saturday to discuss the potential deployment of a multinational peacekeeping force to Ukraine, despite the reluctance of US President Donald Trump to provide security guarantees.
The UK Ministry of Defense said that officials addressed the structure, size and composition of any future “reassurance force,” while the chief of the defense staff, Adm. Antony Radakin, emphasized that the UK would look to “build on the formidable capabilities of the Ukrainian army and put them in the strongest possible position to deter Russian aggression.”
The weekend discussions are planned to set the ground for a further meeting between defense ministers in Brussels and the Ukraine Defense Contact Group on Friday.
Britain has been promoting the idea of a European-led peacekeeping force for Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire but it has said such a force needed a US “backstop” to make it credible in the face of possible Russian reprisals.
Building a force big enough to act as a credible deterrent — UK officials have talked about possibly 10,000 to 30,000 troops — would be a considerable effort for nations that shrank their militaries after the Cold War but are now rearming.
Trump, who has been pushing for a ceasefire in the war in Ukraine, temporarily paused military aid to Kyiv and has repeatedly said that the country will never join the NATO military alliance.
Sri Lanka, India forge defense, energy ties during Modi’s visit
- Indian leader awarded island nation’s highest civilian honor
- Sri Lanka, India, UAE agree to build energy hub in Trincomalee
Colombo: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi received a ceremonial guard of honor in Colombo on Saturday as his delegation signed energy and defense agreements with Sri Lanka, where New Delhi competes with China for greater influence.
Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake rolled out the red carpet for Modi and welcomed him with a 19-gun salute in the capital’s Independence Square.
He also conferred Sri Lanka’s highest civilian honor, Mithra Vibhushan, on the Indian prime minister.
“This prestigious honor, which was introduced in 2008, is conferred upon heads of states and government for their friendship, and honorable Prime Minister Modi highly deserves this honor. That is what we firmly believe,” Dissanayake said during a joint press conference with Modi, after the two countries signed seven cooperation agreements.
Modi arrived in Sri Lanka on Friday evening from Thailand, where he participated in the annual summit of BIMSTEC, a regional grouping of the seven countries on the Bay of Bengal.
He is accompanied by External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, and Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, who signed agreements on defense cooperation, information and technology sharing, and energy imports and exports with the Sri Lankan government.
Another energy deal was signed between India, Sri Lanka, and the UAE on cooperation in the development of Trincomalee port as an energy hub.
“We welcome the important agreements made in the area of defense cooperation. We have also agreed to work together on the Colombo security conclave and security cooperation in the Indian Ocean,” Modi said.
“The agreement reached to build a multiproduct pipeline and to develop Trincomalee as an energy hub will benefit all Sri Lankans. The Grid Inter-Connectivity Agreement between the two countries will create opportunities for Sri Lanka to export electricity.”
The Indian prime minister is the first foreign head of state to visit the island nation since Dissanayake and his leftist alliance swept last year’s presidential and parliamentary elections.
The visit comes as Colombo balances ties with India, its powerful neighbor, and China, its biggest lender, which at the same time is India’s main regional foe.
Dissanayake’s first foreign visit as president was to New Delhi in December, followed by a visit to Beijing in January, highlighting Sri Lanka’s careful diplomacy between the two powers.
“Within the Indian subcontinent and Chinese belt, Sri Lanka is caught as a strategic island — not only in the Indian Ocean — between these two giants,” historian and analyst Dr. B.A. Hussainmiya told Arab News.
“Their geopolitical interest is centering in the Indian Ocean and in the Himalayas, so Sri Lanka, being a very small country, cannot hold its strength unless it creates a balanced and nuanced diplomatic approach between these two powers to keep it afloat in the system.”
UK’s Starmer and France’s Macon share concerns over tariff impacts
- The prime minister and president agreed that a trade war was in nobody’s interests
LONDON: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron shared their concerns over the economic and security impact of US President Donald Trump’s tariffs when they spoke on Saturday, Starmer’s office said.
“They agreed that a trade war was in nobody’s interests, but nothing should be off the table,” the statement from Downing Street said.
“The prime minister and president also shared their concerns about the global economic and security impact, particularly in Southeast Asia.”
The pair agreed to stay in close contact over the coming weeks.
