CND's Press Round-Up - 26th April 2021

Posted: 26th April 2021

Dear all,

Please find today’s press round up below. Thank you to all for their continued help and support.

Nuclear Weapons

Iran Nuclear Policy
 
A leaked recording from an interview given in 2020 by Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif appears to show him saying that Qassem Soleimani had been attempting to undermine the JCPoA, according to Israeli media reports. Zarif is quoted as saying that Soleimani travelled to Moscow to seek Russian backing to ‘demolish our achievement’. In addition to this, Zarif claims that Russia was implacably opposed to the nuclear deal, despite appearances, because it feared Iranian rapprochement with western powers over issues like Syria. The Iranian foreign ministry said that the recording was genuine but that it was ‘an internal record’. General Soleimani was assassinated in January 2020 by a U.S. drone strike, on the orders of President Trump. The Guardian has further details.
 
Nuclear Weapons Financing 
 
Three Scottish banks and investment bodies invested £7 billion in corporations involved in nuclear weapons over the past two years. The new study by Don’t Bank on the Bomb Scotland also shows universities and public sector pension funds investing in nuclear weapons. The members of DBOTBS include Medact Scotland, Scottish CND and Pax Christi Scotland. The National has full details.

Anti-war 

Attack on Iranian Fuel Tanker
 
Three have been killed in an attack on an Iranian fuel tanker off the coast of Syria, the Guardian is reporting.  It is the first attack of its kind during the Syrian war, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. No party has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, but suspicion will fall on Israel, which is believed to have attacked around a dozen vessels carrying Iranian oil to Syria since late 2019.

Al Jazeera reports that the chief of staff of the Iranian military has said that ‘the resistance front will give the Zionists a fundamental response’ after continued Israeli airstrikes on targets in Syria, as well as the attack on the ship. Iran has said that it can put into service new types of land and drone-based radar identifiers and disruptors.
 
India-Pakistan Relations
 
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister has said the country is able and willing to ‘engage in dialogue’ with neighbouring India if the abrogation of Indian-administered Kashmir’s special status is re-examined, according to Al Jazeera. However, Pakistan’s demands, including the release of all political prisoners and Indian troop withdrawals, are likely to be received icily in New Delhi.  

Nuclear Power

Al Jazeera has published an in-depth feature on the present day Ukrainian nuclear power industry. Half of Ukraine’s energy consumption comes from domestic nuclear power plants, with local officials saying economic factors make it very difficult to transition away from nuclear.
The BBC has produced a video following Ukrainian victims of the catastrophe returning to the exclusion zone for the first time in four decades.
 
The Guardian carries a photo-feature from Reuters exploring the abandoned Chernobyl site and the exclusion site. The Ukrainian government has applied to make the area a UNESCO World Heritage site.  

With best wishes,

Michael Muir

Press and Communications Officer
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament