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Russia and US Seek to Block Binding Rules on Autonomous Weapons at UN Geneva Conference, Guardian Reports

Bot Mutiny | November 6, 2026

Russia and the United States are leading a group of nations seeking to use a UN conference this month to block proposals to negotiate legally binding rules on autonomous weapons, The Guardian reported on November 6, 2026. The review conference on "certain conventional weapons" is set for Geneva from 16 to 20 November and is due to be attended by 128 countries.

What is being decided

The Guardian described the Geneva conference as the key moment when states could decide whether to back a mandate to negotiate a legally binding instrument on a defined timetable. Discussions have been under way inside the UN for nearly three years. Russia, the US and Israel, among others, are pushing against the conference setting a timetable for a binding instrument, according to the report.

On 22 October, a coalition of 50 states, including Ireland, Italy, Brazil, Mexico, France and Germany, called for the conference to agree a strict negotiating mandate, The Guardian reported. The Ireland-led group proposed a time-limited expert group that would negotiate over three sessions in Geneva in 2027, totalling 25 days, and report a draft protocol to that year's annual meeting. The International Committee of the Red Cross separately reported that more than 70 states supported starting negotiations on a legal instrument.

Positions of the main governments

The US largely favours leaving it to individual states to impose controls in line with international humanitarian law, The Guardian reported, and the Pentagon has set up its own autonomous weapons working group. The UK did not back the Irish statement and has previously argued that existing international humanitarian law is a sufficient basis for regulating such weapons.

France welcomed a September report from a UN experts group, saying it was a sufficient basis for the conference to give a negotiating mandate that "bans completely autonomous weapons systems and regulates systems with autonomous functions." The experts group defined autonomous weapons as those "capable of identifying, selecting and engaging a target without the need to refer the issue to a human being."

What advocates and officials said

Anna Hehir, head of military AI governance at the Future of Life Institute, an independent nonprofit, said states have "never been closer to launching a global agreement on AI weapons," and that some states would "hide behind language that has the veneer of progress but advocates for a continuation of endless discussions on voluntary measures that have no teeth."

The ICRC said on Thursday: "The time has come to move from discussion to negotiation on new international rules to regulate autonomous systems. The world cannot afford further delays." Pope Leo XIV said artificial intelligence must be "disarmed" and encouraged states meeting in Geneva to take concrete steps toward banning lethal autonomous weapons. In August, outgoing UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and ICRC president Mirjana Spoljaric warned that the world was "nearing a moral red line where autonomous weapons could kill without human involvement."

The Guardian also reported that a total of 163 states voted at the UN disarmament and international security committee that they were ready to launch negotiations.

Use in current conflicts

In July, Ukraine reported for the first time that Russia had used an AI-guided drone, which struck a propane tank at a fuel station in Zaporizhzhia, according to The Guardian. The Guardian cited the US bombing of a school in Minab, Iran, on 28 February, which killed at least 175 people, as the latest example of the misuse of AI in war. It reported that the targeting included input from the Maven AI system operated by Palantir, and, citing a Just Security report, that Maven did not flag that the site had become a school, nor did any personnel reviewing the AI target data. Our earlier coverage is collected on the Minab school strike tracker.