Ambassador Viet pushes for consensus at NPT review, defends handling of Iran vice-presidency dispute

Ambassador Viet, president of the 11th Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), opened the conference press briefing by urging states parties to seek a consensus outcome and by defending his handling of a dispute over Iran's nomination to a vice-presidency role.

Viet said the NPT remains "the cornerstone of international security architecture" but is meeting "the most challenging time" for its regime. He told reporters he had conducted extensive consultations over the previous seven to eight months, including regional meetings in the Asia-Pacific, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America and visits to Vienna and Geneva. He said he had visited nuclear-weapon states and engaged broadly with delegations to help steer negotiations toward a practical, implementable outcome.

Asked about Iran's nomination to a vice-presidency, Viet said the nomination came from the Non-Aligned Movement and that concerns about the candidacy surfaced only about a week before the conference. "The…