CND's Press Round-Up - 25th May 2021

Posted: 25th May 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 Diplomacy
 
Al Jazeera reports that the vital monitoring agreement between the IAEA and Iran has been extended for one month, which should see it out to the conclusion of the Vienna negotiations. The agreement allows the IAEA to capture images and video from Iranian nuclear facilities, although Iran stores the material. The agreement was first signed in February after the Iranian parliament voted to terminate the Additional Protocol, which gave inspection powers to the IAEA. Negotiations are expected to resume in Vienna today.
 
Cold War Nuclear Politics
 
CNN reports that some elements within the U.S. military advocated the use of nuclear weapons against China in 1958, in order to prevent a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. In newly leaked documents provided by the source of the Pentagon Papers, Daniel Ellsberg, military planners discuss using ‘low-yield ten to fifteen kiloton nuclear weapons’ against Chinese air force bases. The documents also discuss nuclear retaliation, presumably from the Soviet Union, against Taiwan and Okinawa. They also show President Dwight Eisenhower to be a restraining influence on the army high command.

Anti-War

French Intervention in Mali
 
The French military has criticised the UN for issuing a report which said the target of a French air strike in January ‘was overwhelmingly composed of civilians who are protected persons under international humanitarian law’, according to the BBC. General Francois Lecointre, head of the French mission in Mali, also said that he expected Western powers still to be fighting armed Salafist groups in the Sahel in ten years’ time. 19 people were killed in the January airstrike. The UN says the event was a wedding; France and its Malian ally have denied this.
 
South Korean Ballistic Missiles
 
The U.S. and South Korea have agreed to get rid of the Revised Missile Guidelines, which limited the range of South Korean ballistic missiles to 800km. The Janes website reports that was agreed in a White House meeting with the South Korean president. Various missile agreements between the two countries have been in place since 1979, with the U.S. supplying technology on the basis of various use conditions.

Nuclear Power

Nuclear Power- UK
 
The Sizwell C project has been awarded a government grant to research carbon capture in its operations, according to the Energy Live News website.The system would remove carbon dioxide from the air. The proposals for Sizewell involve low use of electricity and variable levels of heat. A prototype Direct Air Capture system will be built using the grant.  

With best wishes,

Michael Muir

Press and Communications Officer
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament