I just checked the UN web site.
The
most recent statement posted by the US Mission to the UN, and specifically attending meetings for the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs (the one handling the Arms Trade Treaty discussion), was dated March 5th, 2009.
Nowhere in that statement does the US Mission say they support a specific treaty, only that it (we) support the
general discussion on “… controlling the international conventional arms trade, and especially preventing such arms from serving illegitimate or anti-humanitarian purposes”. I loved this part:
Quote:
Mr. Chairman and distinguished colleagues, I have been struck this week by the number of interventions proclaiming generic and laudable “goals, objectives, parameters, and elements” that fit more appropriately into a treatise following on to Thomas More’s “Utopia”.
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(Emphasis added)
All they’re doing is talking about it, and the next meeting to “discuss” isn’t until July, 2010; with the last currently scheduled meeting not until 2012.
There doesn't appear to be any treaty ready for signatures; they're still talking about it.
In Pursuit,