US police arrest anti-nuclear weapons activists at United Nations

New York Police Department officers detain anti-nuclear activists demonstrating in front of the United States Mission to the United Nations in New York, US, June 19, 2017. (Photo by Reuters)

A number of anti-nuclear weapons activists have been arrested in New York during a protest against Washington’s decision to boycott negotiations on a nuclear weapons ban treaty.

 The arrests were made after the activists chanting slogans such as "US join the talks, ban the bomb," blocked the entrances to the US mission to the United Nations.  

The protesters sat in front of the doors before the police moved in. police said they warned the demonstrators that they would be arrested if they did not leave the place.

 In March, US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley announced that the United States, Britain and France had decided not to join talks on a nuclear weapons ban treaty.

The United Nations is currently holding a second round of negotiations about the issue.

The world body adopted a resolution in December to negotiate a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading toward their total elimination and encouraged all member states to participate.

A total of 113 nations voted in favor of the resolution but 35 countries, including the United States, Britain and France, voted against it. Thirteen countries abstained.

Testing of the US military’s Peacekeeper reentry vehicles, all eight fired from only one missile. Each line represents the path of an individual warhead. One Peacekeeper can hold up to 10 nuclear warheads, each independently targeted.

According to the US military’s recent declaration, the United States has 806 deployed ICBMs (intercontinental ballistic missile), SLBMs (submarine-launched ballistic missile), and heavy bombers as well as 1,722 deployed nuclear warheads.  

The Pentagon is also equipped with a multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle (MIRV), a highly advanced version of the intercontinental nuclear missile carrying several independent warheads.