Category: ARMAMENTS

By Emad Mekay* | IDN-InDepthNews Analysis

CAIRO (IDN) – When the U.S.-Iran nuclear deal was announced in July, the image in state-controlled Saudi media was of Western powers caving in to a new powerful neighboring foe. The usually reticent Saudi officials paid the usual diplomatic lip-service to the agreement but social media, academia and state-owned news outlet all portrayed a different picture; profound Saudi anxiety that included statements that the oil-rich country can use its wealth to go nuclear.

By Fabíola Ortiz | IDN-InDepthNews Analysis

NEW YORK (IDN) – An effective verification of atomic arsenals as well as that of nuclear material and other military activities is a pre-condition for achieving a world free of nuclear weapons, experts told IDN. They were participating in a briefing to update on International Partnership for Nuclear Disarmament Verification (IPNDV) at the UN Headquarters in New York.

The establishment of the IPNDV goes back to December 4, 2014, when the U.S. Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Rose Gottemoeller announced a new initiative to develop the tools and technologies in the quest to reduce and eliminate nuclear weapons.

By Hans M. Kristensen* | IDN-InDepthNews Analysis

WASHIGTON, DC (FAS | IDN) – The number of U.S. strategic warheads counted as “deployed” under the New START Treaty has dropped below the treaty’s limit of 1,550 warheads for the first time since the treaty entered into force in February 2011 – a reduction of 263 warheads over four and a half years.

Russia, by contrast, has increased its deployed warheads and now has more strategic warheads counted as deployed under the treaty than in 2011 – up 111 warheads.

By Ramesh Jaura | IDN-InDepthNews Analysis

BERLIN (IDN) – Major nuclear disarmament groups are deeply concerned over speculations whether a Russian Tupolev Tu-160 supersonic bomber, intercepted late September in British airspace, was planning to attack the country and unleash World War 3. They have urged Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Barack Obama to agree to “an immediate reduction in nuclear risks”.

By Fabíola Ortiz | IDN-InDepthNews Analysis

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – “We will be working very aggressively to achieve the goal of making the world nuclear free by 2045,” when the United Nations will mark its 100th birthday, declared Erlan Idrissov, Foreign Minister of the Central Asian Republic of Kazakhstan.

By Ronald Joshua | IDN-InDepthNews Analysis

HIROSHIMA (IDN) – A new ‘Generation of Change’ is making its presence felt, pledging to walk the talk over the last 70 years in a clarion call for freeing the world of 16,000 to 17,000 nuclear weapons that continue “to threaten every single person with the prospect of a cruel and inhumane death”.

By Ramesh Jaura

HIROSHIMA (IDN) – Calls are growing for organising a nuclear disarmament summit next year in Hiroshima, one of the only two cities, along with Nagasaki, which have until now suffered the devastating atomic bombings 70 years ago. But indications are that there is only a remote possibility that such a gathering would indeed take place.

By Daryl G. Kimball* | IDN-InDepthNews Viewpoint

HIROSHIMA (IDN) – In the seven decades since the U.S. atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, nuclear weapons have become less and less relevant to the security of possessor states and their allies and the potential harm of their further use has become even more harmful to international security and human survival.

By Katsuhiro Asagiri* | IDN-InDepthNews Analysis

TOKYO (IDN) – In a message to the Peace Memorial Ceremony, to mark the 70th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon echoed the ardent wish of the survivors of nuclear assault, when he called for “urgent action to eliminate nuclear weapons once and for all”.

By Neena Bhandari | IDN-InDepthNews Analysis

SYDNEY (IDN) – As political conflicts magnify in the Middle East and North Africa with the spectre of brutal violence from terrorist organisations like ISIS, and the Ukraine crisis reignites the Cold War between the United States, its NATO [North Atlantic Treaty Organisation] allies and Russia; it is imperative that nuclear-armed and non-nuclear states together work for total elimination of nuclear weapons. The risk of use of nuclear weapons, by deliberation or accident, leading to total annihilation looms large more than ever before.