CND's Press Round-Up - 12th April 2021
Posted: 12th April 2021
Dear all,
Please find today’s press round up below. Thank you to all for their continued help and support.
Nuclear Weapons
Israeli sabotage of an Iranian uranium enrichment facility dominates international press attention, whilst the UK warhead increase faces Scottish political opposition.
Iranian Nuclear Facility Sabotage
There is a considerable amount of press coverage focusing on the incident at the Natanz uranium enrichment complex in Iran on Sunday morning. There have been no casualties reported from the incident, and the exact nature of it remains unclear, though the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran said that it involved the plant’s power network. Iranian President Rouhani had visited the site the previous day to unveil new centrifuges.
The BBC says that Israeli press has quoted intelligence sources, confirming that it was an Israeli cyber-attack. Frank Gardner also has a piece on the BBC’s website in which he places the action in the longer historical context of Israeli military strikes against nuclear facilities in Iraq in the 1980s and Syria in the 2000s. Moreover, he argues that, by virtue of the nuclear facilities ‘becoming impenetrable’ by air attack, Israel has been forced to rely on cyber attacks and covert operations to achieve its tactical objectives.
The Guardian reports that Israel did not impose domestic press censorship on reporting of the incident and quotes the head of the IDF, Aviv Kochavi as saying that ‘operations in the Middle East are not hidden from the eyes of the enemy’. Al Jazeera quotes Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif as saying ‘If they think our hand in the negotiations has been weakened, actually this cowardly act will strengthen our position in the talks’.
UK Warhead Increase
The decision by Boris Johnson’s government to increase the UK’s number of nuclear warheads faced continued opposition in Scotland, with the Scottish Green Party announcing a new policy of active resistance to the presence of Trident in the country, ahead of May’s election. The Morning Star reports that the Greens want to amend the law to try to make it illegal for nuclear-armed submarines to travel off the coast of Scotland. A Scottish CND spokesperson is quoted in the piece.
In related news, the Ferret and the National carry pieces on the work of Nukewatch, which suggests that the number of weapons stored at the Coulport facility. A spokesperson for the SNP said that ‘If these reports are true, they represent perhaps the most egregious example yet of the UK Government bypassing democratic scrutiny to enact policies no-one voted for. To secretly increase the number of these unwanted weapons of mass destruction on Scotland would be a moral and democratic outrage’. The Ministry of Defence declined to comment.
BBC Coverage of Nuclear Weapons
BBC Radio 4’s ‘Start the Week’ has a forty five minute programme on ‘nuclear destruction’, which can be found on iPlayer here.
Anti-War
Initial indications suggest that the U.S. wants to proceed with the ‘modernisation’ of its ground-based nuclear weapons, whilst its defence budget ramps up competition with China.
U.S. Defence Budget
The Biden administration’s first budget outline for the fiscal year 2022 has requested $715 billion dollars for the Department of Defense budget, which represents a slight decrease in real terms and compares for Donald Trump’s intention to ask for $722 billion. Whilst some Republicans have criticised the outline, other hawkish figures in Washington D.C. say it shows the new administration won’t cut defence spending. A more detailed budget is expected in the next three months.
The U.S. political website The Hill reports that a White House briefing note states that the defence budget ‘prioritizes the need to counter the threat from China as the department’s top challenge’. The budget outlines also places an emphasis on increasing U.S. shipbuilding capacity, in part for deployment in East Asia.
There is also some indication that the modernisation of the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent will proceed, against the left of the Democratic Party’s opposition. The DefenseNews website has the full story here.
With best wishes,
Michael Muir
Press and Communications Officer
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament