CND's Press Round-Up - 1st April 2021
Posted: 1st April 2021
Please find today’s press round up below. A continued thanks to all for your help and support.
Nuclear Weapons
Iran-Israel Relations
The IDF General responsible for Iranian issues, Major General Tal Kalman, has said that Israel ‘definitely’ has the ability to destroy Iran’s nuclear programme using military means, according to the Algemeiner. Worryingly, the general said that, from his perspective, the Biden administration ‘has come to listen, not rush to a new deal’. Moreover, a strategy of encircling Iran by forming alliances with Gulf monarchies is explicitly outlined.
U.S. Ground-Based Nuclear Weapons
The War is Boring website carries a report from the Minot U.S. Air Force Base in rural North Dakota, on the much extended life of the Minuteman III nuclear missile system. The article points out the considerable logistical challenges of maintaining a ground-based nuclear weapon system which was first introduced in the very early 1970s. A number of the companies which produced designs and spare components for the system have gone out of business, with the result being that repairs are often delayed for months on end and the system relies on working components to be shifted around from missile silo to missile silo. This comes as the U.S.A gears up to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on modernising the three (ground, sea and air) elements of its nuclear arsenal.
Nuclear Weapons-North Korea
The UN Secretary Council has not taken any actions at this moment in time, after it met on Tuesday to discuss North Korean ballistic missiles testing. The Washington Post reports that there was a significant degree of consensus on the need to maintain dialogue with the North Korean regime, with a mandate for expert weapon inspection having been renewed by the Security Council last Friday. A joint China-Russia resolution would which would have introduced limited sanctions relief to the country was discussed but not voted on. The most recent round of sanctions was imposed in 2017, when the country carried out an intercontinental ballistic missile test.
Anti-War
U.S. Drone Programme
The U.S. Navy is intending that 60% of aircraft launched from the next generation of its carrier vessels will be unmanned drones, according to the Breaking Defense website. This generation of ships is due to become operational in the mid-2030s, though persistent delays have hampered their early development.
Taliban-U.S. Peace Negotiations
In an op-ed published by Al Jazeera¸ the Pakistani politician Mohsin Dawar criticises the draft U.S. plan for Afghanistan on the grounds that it infringes the sovereignty of the Afghan state and fails to deal with the continued threat of Taliban violence against the state and civilians. He argues that any peace plan which does not account for the complicity of the Pakistani military and intelligence services in prolonging the conflict.
Nuclear Power
Nuclear Power-Global
The Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Mariano Grossi urged countries to consider using nuclear power as a mean of reducing carbon emissions, since ‘the clock is ticking’ on climate change.Speaking at the IEA-COP26 Net Zero Summit, Grossi said that small and modular reactors, and so called ‘micro-reactors’ would nuclear power more accessible to a wider range of countries.
With best wishes,
Michael Muir
Press and Communications Officer
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament