Foreign Minister: We Do So Want To Get Rid Of Nukes

Despite a UN representative vote against banning nuclear weapons, Foreign Minister Gunnar Bragi Sveinsson contends Iceland does want to get rid of them.

Iceland’s government has been under considerable criticism from the opposition since it came to light that Iceland’s representatives to the UN voted against an international ban against nuclear weapons. Today, the Minister of Foreign Affairs defended the decision, RÚV reports, while emphasising that Iceland does want to help rid the world of nuclear arms.

“There is already an ongoing process that people have come together over,” he said. “To reduce the use of nuclear weapons [note: nuclear weapons have not been used since 1945], to stop experimenting with them, and of course above all to destroy them.”

The minister said that the proposal Iceland voted against would have started a whole new process, which Gunnar Bragi says was unnecessary, because “we considered it simply better to continue the process we’re already using”.

As such, the minister stressed that Iceland’s stance on nuclear weapons is clear.

“This doesn’t change our position,” he said. “We want to wipe out nuclear weapons, we just don’t want to do it this way.”