USA and Canada

Photo: A general view of the NATO meeting on December 4, 2018. Credit: NATO.

U.S. INF Treaty Termination May Once Again Trigger Nuclear Arms Race

By Daryl G. Kimball and Kingston A. Reif

The following is the text of the analysis in Issue Brief (Volume 10, Issue 10, December 4, 2018) by the Arms Control Association (ACA). Daryl G. Kimball, is the executive director and Kingston A. Reif the director for disarmament and threat reduction policy of ACA. – The Editor

WASHINGTON; DC (IDN-INPS) – Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared [on December 4] Russia in material breach of the landmark 1987 Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty and announced that the United States plans to suspend U.S. obligations under the treaty in 60 days unless Russia returns to compliance.

In a new statement on the INF Treaty also released [on December 4], NATO foreign ministers collectively declared for the first time “that Russia has developed and fielded a missile system, the 9M729, which violates the INF Treaty". The ministers also stated: “It is now up to Russia to preserve the INF Treaty.”

: Daryl G. Kimball; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 05 December 2018

Photo: Protest against U.S. involvement in the military intervention in Yemen, New York City, 2017. CC BY 2.0

U.S. Senate Vote on Yemen Rebukes Trump and Saudis

Viewpoint by Mark Weisbrot

This article was published by The Guardian on November 30, 2018. Mark Weisbrot is Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C., and the president of Just Foreign Policy. He is also the author of “Failed: What the ‘Experts’ Got Wrong About the Global Economy” (2015, Oxford University Press). You can subscribe to his columns here.

WASHINGTON (IDN-INPS) – It was a resounding defeat for the White House and Republican Senate leadership: by a 63-37 majority, the Senate voted on November 28 to advance legislation that would give President Trump 30 days to get the US military out of Saudi Arabia’s genocidal war in Yemen, unless he could get congressional authorization for US military intervention. Which he almost certainly could not.

: J Nastranis; OPINION; 30 November 2018

Photo: U.S. Deputy Minister of Energy Pays a Visit to King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy (KACARE). January 2018. Credit: KACARE

Saudi Arabia's Long-Term Goal of Going Nuclear – With U.S. Backing

By Shanta Roy

NEW YORK (IDN) – The Trump administration’s increasingly cozy relationship with Saudi Arabia has led to widespread speculation that the United States may be assisting the Saudis – directly or indirectly – to achieve their long term goal of acquiring nuclear weapons.

The speculation has been triggered by ongoing secret negotiations between the two countries to help Saudi Arabia gain access to nuclear energy in a proposed deal estimated at over a hefty $80 billion, according to a front-page story in the New York Times November 23.

: Shanta Roy; THE WORLD; Middle East & North Africa; 30 November 2018

Photo: Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo meets with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on October 16, 2018. [State Department photo by Ron Przysucha/Public Domain]

Keeping Saudi Arabia Nuclear-Free

Viewpoint by Joseph Gerson

The writer is President of the Campaign for Peace Disarmament and Common Security and author of ‘Empire and the Bomb’.

NEW YORK (IDN) – There is growing concern over the ruthless Crown Prince’s campaign to purchase $80 billion of U.S. nuclear power plant designs and technologies from the U.S. and his reported insistence on producing Saudi Arabia’s own nuclear fuel – a potential path to nuclear weapons development.

Concerns that Saudi Arabia aspires to become a nuclear power need to be seen in the larger context of the dangerous ambitions and delusions of power hungry elites, nuclear and otherwise.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; OPINION; 30 November 2018

Photo: Papua New Guinea's Prime Minister Peter O'Neill, right, and China's President Xi Jinping in Port Moresby on November 16.

China Chides U.S. for Portraying Silk Road as 'Trap'

By Devinder Kumar

PORT MORESBY (IDN) – China’s President Xi Jinping has rejected U.S. criticism of Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative, vowing it is not "a trap" and that it is not designed to serve any hidden geopolitical agenda. The project is also known as Silk Road Economic Belt.

Xi was addressing a meeting of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in the capital of PNG and referring to a massive infrastructure and development project spanning Southeast Asia, Central Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Africa, according to Iran's Press TV.

: Devinder Kumar; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 17 November 2018

Photo: President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron in their bilateral discussion on September 24, 2018, at the Lotte New York Palace in New York. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Nuclear Arms Control is Going Down a Trumpian Hole

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – Reacting to the radio interview by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, to mark Armistice Day, in which he was reported as saying, “We have to protect ourselves with respect to China, Russia and even the United States of America… We need a true European army”, President Donald Trump blew a fuse. He tweeted: “President Macron of France has just suggested that Europe build its own military in order to protect itself from the U.S., China and Russia. Very insulting.”

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 13 November 2018

Photo: Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar. Credit: National Daily.

Nigeria's Presidential Candidate Abubakar Hires Trump's Campaign Strategist

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) - Cash money makes things happen. That’s an expression taken from the Urban Dictionary but it may also be the hope of Atiku Abubakar, candidate for President of Nigeria with the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which just hired Donald Trump’s lobbying firm at an astronomical price.

Abubakar was Nigeria’s vice president from 1999 to 2007 and a former ally of current president Muhammadu Buhari.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 06 November 2018

Photo: Gabon President Ali Bongo. Source: polisonline.com.ng

Gabon Draws the Focus as Longtime President is Hospitalized

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Balloons and fireworks will have to wait as the longtime President of Gabon has been hospitalized at the King Faisal hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, suffering from severe fatigue.

The party of President Ali Bongo Ondimba had just “coasted to victory” in a second round of legislative elections in October 2018 when the President fell ill. A medical and a diplomatic source both told the Reuters news agency that the president had suffered a stroke, but government officials disputed the story.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 30 October 2018

Photo credit: Audrey Tirtaguna | The Daily Pennsylvanian

Experts Underline the Gravity of a Potential Nuclear Conflict

By Claire Ochroch

This report first appeared on October 25, 2018 in The Daily Pennsylvanian.

NEW YORK (IDN-INPS) – Speakers from across the world stopped by Penn's Perry World House on October 23 evening to discuss the importance of denuclearization.

The event, called the Penn Peace Project, was hosted by the International Affairs Association. Speakers included Veronique Christory, Senior Arms Control Advisor of the International Committee of the Red Cross and Susanne Hammer, Austrian First Secretary Disarmament Officer, who touched on how nuclear weapons affect people's daily lives.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 27 October 2018

Participation in Landmark NATO Exercise Reveals Iceland's Dilemma

By Lowana Veal

REYKJAVIK (IDN) – Iceland, the most sparsely populated country in Europe, has no standing army. But it is a founding member of the 29-nation North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and is therefore taking part in Trident Juncture 2018, the largest NATO exercise since the end of the Cold War in December 1991.

Briefing the media on October 24, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said, the exercise includes around 65 ships, 250 aircraft, 10,000 vehicles and 50,000 personnel. In addition to all NATO Allies, Finland and Sweden are also participating.