[JURIST] Hans Blix [official profile], former UN chief weapons inspector and current head of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission [official website], said in a New York press conference Monday that the US is undermining its position as a nuclear power player by not taking the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty as seriously as it should. Blix believes that American officials led by Undersecretary of State John Bolton [official profile], now under consideration as the next US ambassador to the UN, has unduly questioned the importance of treaties and international law, harming attempts to prevent North Korea and Iran from becoming nuclear. The UN 2005 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference [official website] which began last Monday [JURIST report] has been stalled because the US has been so slow in taking steps towards disarmament, a requirement of the nuclear test-ban treaty [PDF text], leading to conflicts over agenda issues with both Iran [JURIST report] and Egypt [JURIST report]. AP has more.