Nuclear world war 3 happening soon? Why is UN panel fearing the worst?

Signatories of the landmark nuclear non-proliferation treaty began a meeting at the UN on Monday as fears of a renewed arms race escalate, with atomic powers once again at loggerheads over safeguards. In 2022, during the last review of the treaty considered the cornerstone of non-proliferation, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned humanity was "one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation."

On Monday he warned "the drivers" of nuclear weapons proliferation were accelerating.




US-Iran War


With global geopolitical friction only heightened since the last meeting, it was unclear what the two-week gathering at UN headquarters in New York could achieve.

Decisions on the NPT have to be agreed by consensus, with the previous two conferences failing to adopt final political declarations. In 2015, the deadlock was largely due to opposition by Israel's arch-ally Washington to the creation of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East. In 2022, the impasse was due mainly to Russian opposition to references to Ukraine's nuclear power plant at Zaporizhzhia, occupied by Moscow.

This year's summit could fall on any number of stumbling blocks. The ongoing war in Ukraine, Iran's nuclear program and the war there, non-nuclear states' fears over proliferation and North Korea's developing arsenal could all be deal-breakers.

The United States along with its allies Britain, the UAE and Australia spoke out at Iran's appointment as a conference vice president. Washington's envoy to the meeting said conferring a leadership role on Tehran was an "affront" to countries that take the NPT 'seriously'.

Artificial intelligence could be a prominent issue as some countries call for all sides to keep human control over nuclear weapons.

Nuclear Arms Race

The nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT), signed by almost all the countries on the planet -- with notable exceptions including Israel, India, and Pakistan -- aims to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, to promote complete disarmament, and to encourage cooperation on civilian nuclear projects.

The nine nuclear-armed states -- Russia, the United States, France, the United Kingdom, China, India, Pakistan, Israel, and North Korea -- possessed 12,241 nuclear warheads in January 2025, according to the latest report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

In March, France's President Emmanuel Macron announced a dramatic shift in nuclear deterrence, notably an increase in the atomic arsenal, currently numbering 290 warheads.