CND's Press Round-Up - 7th May 2021
Posted: 7th May 2021
Dear all,
Please find today’s press round up below. Thank you to all for their continued help and support.
Nuclear Weapons
There has been a flurry of diplomatic activity ahead of the fourth round of Vienna talks while a test-fire of a U.S. ICBM has gone wrong and a new report examines the relationship between technological change and nuclear disarmament.
Iran Nuclear Deal Diplomacy
The fourth round of indirect negotiations in Vienna between Iran and the U.S. begin today. Al Jazeera reports on claims by sources within the U.S. diplomatic machinery that an agreement could be reached in Vienna within weeks on the Iran Nuclear deal. The U.S. source said however that ‘a matter of a political decision that needs to be made in Iran’.
The Guardian also carries a report on the talks, with a particular emphasis on the British and French role. The Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has said that the talks must conclude by the start of June. The French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian appears to be blaming the Iranians at present, telling the paper that ‘Iran has not taken the corresponding gestures or signs about all their breaches of the accord since 2019’.
Qatar is attempting to position itself as an honest broker between the U.S. and Iran as efforts to resurrect the JCPoA struggle on. Al Jazeera, which is owned by the Qatari state, reports the Foreign Minister of the emirate as saying that ‘We have strong and strategic relations with Washington and we have good relations with Tehran’. A Qatari delegation visited Iran in February to discuss the nuclear deal.
U.S. Missile Test
The U.S. Air Force was compelled to abandon the test fire of an unarmed Minuteman III ICBM after the missile shut itself down, according to the AirforceTimes website. The missile was due to be fired from an underground silo on the coast of California. An Air Force spokesperson is quoted as saying that ‘there has not been an incident like this in recent memory’. In such tests, the missile typically flies for around thirty minutes before landing in the ocean by the Kwajalein Atoll of the Marshall Islands. The USAF possesses around 400 of these land-based silo-launched Minutemen missiles.
New Disarmament Report
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute has published a report by Dr Tytti Erasto examining in-depth how changes to nuclear technology might affect disarmament efforts, particularly bilateral ones between the U.S. and Russia. The report argues that ‘progress towards nuclear disarmament would be complicated by long-range precision-strike weapons and strategic missile defences, which have raised the bar for credible nuclear deterrence by creating uncertainty about US adversaries’ second-strike capabilities’. The full report can be found here.
Anti-war
The final withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan appears to be very popular, according to new polling.
U.S. Withdrawal from Afghanistan
New polling suggests the U.S. public overwhelmingly supports the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, according to U.S. political website The Hill.Around two-thirds of the public supports the withdrawal, a proportion which is broadly mirrored amongst those who are serving or have served in the country’s armed forces. Respondents were divided on whether the Biden administration’s timetable would be successfully implemented, however.
Nuclear Power
A spirit made in Chernobyl has caused controversy with the Ukrainian authorities.
Produce from Chernobyl
Bottles of a spirit distilled from apples grown within the Chernobyl exclusion zone have been seized by the Ukrainian authorities, according to the BBC. The social enterprise behind the ‘Atomik’ brandy have said it is the first consumer product ever to be made with materials from the area. The Kiev prosecutor’s office has told the producers that their export tax stamps were invalid, but the latter have claimed ulterior motives on the part of the police.
With best wishes,
Michael Muir
Press and Communications Officer
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament