Various: The international community is having
to respond to both progress and setbacks in its attempts to
control both nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. The
Guardian newspaper
reports
on Iran's defiance of the UN security council over its
uranium enrichment facilities that are suspected to form the
basis of nuclear weapons program. The BBC
reports
on a new agreement between India and Pakistan aimed at
reducing the risk of accidental nuclear war in the region.
North Korea may have enough plutonium for 4-8 warheads
says
the Boston Herald, despite agreeing to abandon its weapons
program. But the main concern among arms control analysts, such
as those at the STAFOR organization, is
the
deteriorating relationship between Russia and the US,
brought about because of the positioning of radar and missile
stations in Poland and the Czech Republic. The US claims that
the installations are part of the national
antiâballistic defense system, and are
designed to defend the US against a missile launch from places
such as Iran, not Russia. Russia disagrees, and is threatening
to abandon the IntermediateâRange Nuclear
Forces Treaty (INF) signed by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev
and U.S. President Ronald Reagan in December 1987. The
Eurasia
Daily Monitor highlights a timeframe over Russian
complaints regarding the INF treaty.
