The US pushed back Thursday against a Russian draft resolution to the UN General Assembly that proposed to preserve the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) that the US plans to pull out of, according to diplomatic sources.

“The international community has an obligation to react to this apocalyptic situation,” a Russian diplomat said in response to Washington’s recent announcement.

“The draft resolution pulls from a series of resolutions adopted by the General Assembly and aims to reinforce the viability of the treaty,” he added.

If passed, the resolution would allow “the continuation of discussions between Russia and the US in order to work through the two countries’ concerns about the framework of the agreement.”

“That would allow us to preserve and reinforce the two parties’ responsibilities for its implementation,” the diplomat said.

Moscow considers “preserving this agreement (to be) the sine qua non condition to continuing to advance the cause of reducing nuclear weapons,” according to the diplomat, and called on all UN member states to consider the draft resolution.

According to a UN source, the US rejected the Russian draft resolution because it “came too late to be compatible with the agenda of the UN Disarmament Commission. “

Source: AFP