Despite the efforts of United Nations Ambassador Peter Woolcott, Iran, Syria and North Korea spiked an attempt by the United Nations to curb and control the sale of conventional arms. 

The draft treaty was put before the UN, but Iran and North Korea voted against it.  Woolcott then suspended the meeting to try to find a path forward, but both countries were adamant in their objections.  When Woolcott resumed the vote, Syria objected as well.

Getting a consensus among 193 nations has been a gargantuan task and negotiations have dragged on for years.  The treaty is designed to get nations that sell conventional weapons to stop exporting to other states with known human rights abuses, as well as involvement with terrorism and organized crime.

The United States and Russia are the world’s two largest conventional arms dealers.  In the US, the National Rifle Association (NRA) is fiercely opposed to the treaty.  The NRA claims to represent individual gun owners but gets most of its funding from manufacturers that would stand to profit by the least amount of control on arms sales.  The NRA is expected to lean on conservative lawmakers to reject the treaty if it is put before Congress.  The situation puts the NRA is alignment with three hostile nations:  Iran, Syria, and North Korea, the last of which is technically still at war with the USA.