Nuclear Weapons

Photo: General view of the Security Council meeting on non-proliferation by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on 15 December 2017. Credit: UN Photo/Manuel Elias.

UN Security Council to Discuss Confidence-building Measures and Weapons of Mass Destruction

By Alyn Ware

Alyn Ware is Global Coordinator of Parliamentarians for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament (PNND).

NEW YORK (IDN) – Kairat Umarov, President of the UN Security Council for January, has announced that Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev will chair a special session of the Council on January 18 on the issue of Weapons of Mass Destruction and Confidence Building Measures (CBMs).

The session is being called in order to provide a focus on the resolution of political issues that give rise to States relying on weapons of mass destruction – especially nuclear weapons.

"Today we should pay more attention to the building of trust and confidence among political leaders and among countries," Kazakh Ambassador Umarov told a press conference at the UN on January 2, announcing the session. "Without this, none of the issues will be solved. This is what today's world is lacking."

Photo: Demonstration in Tel-Aviv against nuclear weapons. Credit: The Israeli Disarmament Movement.

Israeli Disarmament Movement Steers Through Nuclear Ambiguity

By Bernhard Schell

AMMAN (IDN) – The Israeli media ignored the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in honour of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) on December 10, 2017 in Oslo. The Israeli Ambassador to Norway however attended the event.

The silence of the Israeli media, according to observers, was not surprising though ICAN's eminent partner in the Middle East, the Israeli Disarmament Movement (IDM), founded and chaired by Sharon Dolev, has influenced the Israeli public discourse for the past six years.

ICAN also has partners in Egypt, Iran, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria and Yemen.

Photo (left to right): The Norwegian Nobel Committee Chair Berit Reiss-Andersen; ICAN campaigner Setsuko Thurlow who survived the bombing of Hiroshima as a 13-year-old; ICAN Executive Director Beatrice Fihn. Credit: ICAN

In Just Ten Years ICAN Makes It To Nobel Peace Prize

By Alice Slater*

NEW YORK (IDN-INPS) – In Oslo on December 10, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) and was accepted on behalf of the Campaign by its executive director, Beatrice Fihn, and by Setsuko Thurlow, an ICAN campaigner and survivor of the 1945 Hiroshima bombing.

Both spoke for the thousands of campaigners in over 400 organizations and more than 100 countries around the world who succeeded this fall in working with friendly governments to move a majority of states at the United Nations to adopt a treaty to prohibit to ban nuclear weapons, making their possession, use, or threat of use unlawful.

Photo: The U.S. nuclear warheads are stored in some 21 locations, which include 13 U.S. states and 5 European countries. Credit: worldatlas.com

The Doomsday Machine by a Damascene Convert

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – The nuclear weapon missile business is contradictory, full of missteps, highly dangerous and prepared in its madness (Mutually Assured Destruction, aka MAD, they used to call it in Cold War days) to plunge the world into a nuclear war that will reduce most of the world to dust.

A new book, “The Doomsday Machine” by Daniel Ellsberg tells the whole nuclear bomb story in detail. No one has done it better. The only rival is the movie, “Dr Strangelove”, that got the essentials right without being privy to much of the Ellsberg’s knowledge.

Photo: Secretary-General Antonio Guterres addresses the Security Council on non-proliferation / DPRK. UN Photo/Manuel Elias

Security Council Highlights DPRK's Humanitarian Needs, Agrees on Importance of Communication Channels

By J Nastranis

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) - While expressing his profound concern over the risk of military confrontation on the Korean Peninsula, "including as a result of miscalculation," United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has stressed the need to disassociate the peace and security situation in the DPRK (North Korea) from the humanitarian needs in the country.

Seventy per cent of the country’s population is affected by food insecurity and 40 per cent are malnourished and some $114 million is needed to meet urgent requirements. However, the 2017 DPRK Humanitarian Needs and Priorities appeal is only 30 per cent funded, he told the Security Council on December 15.

Photo: Setsuko Thurlow delivering her Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech. Credit. Norwegian Nobel Committee.

'Listen To Our Testimony. Heed Our Warning'

By Setsuko Thurlow

Setsuko Thurlow is a Japanese-Canadian nuclear disarmament campaigner who survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945. She is a leading figure in the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), which won the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize. Thurlow accepted the prize on behalf of the campaign at a ceremony in Oslo on 10 December 2017, together with Beatrice Fihn, the executive director of ICAN. Following are extensive excerpts from her Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech. – The Editor

OSLO (IDN) – It is a great privilege to accept this award, together with Beatrice, on behalf of all the remarkable human beings who form the ICAN movement. You each give me such tremendous hope that we can – and will – bring the era of nuclear weapons to an end.

Photo: A meeting of the IPNDV in session. Credit: IPNDV

Monitoring Dismantlement Key to Eliminating Nuclear Weapons

By Jamshed Baruah

NEW YORK (IDN) – Since the United Nations General Assembly adopted on July 7, 2017 the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, urging the prohibition and complete elimination of the atomic arsenal, the question of verification and the dismantlement of nuclear weapons has acquired particular importance. Because there are several areas where adequate technologies either need to be developed or re-engineered.

Over the past four decades, the United States and the Soviet Union as well as its successor the Russian Federation have used a series of bilateral agreements and other measures to limit and reduce their substantial nuclear warhead and strategic missile and bomber arsenals.

Photo: U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson addresses reporters during a joint statement to the media with European Union High Representative Federica Mogherini, in Brussels, Belgium on December 5, 2017. [State Department Photo/ Public Domain]

Iran Deal 'Key Strategic Priority' for Global Security, Mogherini Tells Tillerson

By Kelsey Davenport

Kelsey Davenport is director for nonproliferation policy at the Arms Control Association. This article was first published in their blog with the caption 'Tillerson, Mogherini Meet Ahead of Key JCPOA Deadlines'. – The Editor

WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN-INPS) – EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini reiterated to U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson that the EU would work with the United States to address shared issues related to Iran, "on the basis of continued U.S. implementation of the nuclear deal" and outside of the agreement itself.

Mogherini and Tillerson discussed the nuclear deal between Iran and the P5+1 (China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States) during a Dec. 5 bilateral meeting in Brussels.

Photo: ICAN, represented by Setsuko Thurlow and Beatrice Fihn, receives the Nobel Peace Prize Medal and Diploma from Berit Reiss-Andersen of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, during the award ceremony in Oslo. Copyright: Nobel Media AB 2017.

Nobel Peace Prize for ICAN Puts Pressure on Norway to Sign the UN Treaty

By Nina Berglund

The writer is editor and publisher of Norway's news site, newsinenglish.no. This report, which originally appeared with the headline Peace Prize puts squeeze on Norway, is being reproduced courtesy of the news site. – The Editor

OSLO (IDN-INPS) - Nobel Peace Prize Day in Oslo dawned with clear and sunny skies on Sunday, but not everyone was celebrating. The Norwegian Nobel Committee’s decision to award this year’s Peace Prize to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) challenges Norwegian leaders to finally support a ban themselves, and now pressure is building on them to do so.

The Peace Prize to ICAN thrust the prize’s own home country into a difficult, even embarrassing, position. Norway, in line with its NATO allies and other nuclear powers, have refused to support or sign a UN treaty to prohibit nuclear weapons that was adopted by 122 other nations last summer. Critics called that shameful.