Hanan Awarekeh Readers
04/05/2010
- US nuclear arsenal: A TOTAL OF 5,113 WARHEADS
- Israel: SOLE NUCLEAR POWER IN THE MIDDLE EAST WITH OVER 200 NUCLEAR HEADS
However, Washington and its main ally Israel are impudent enough to attack Iran’s peaceful nuclear program claiming Tehran is seeking to develop a nuclear bomb and threatening to impose more sanctions against the Islamic republic.
Again the double standard policy seems to dominate the US talks, one can not but wonder how come the international community, led by the United Nations, doesn’t raise its questions about the US and Israeli nuclear arsenals at a time it is seeking sanctions against the Islamic republic nuclear program based on “doubts” and “fears” that it may be using it for developing a nuclear bomb.
According to figures released by the Pentagon, the total does not include warheads that have been retired and scheduled for dismantlement, an estimated 4,600 according to the Federation of American Scientists nonprofit group. The US nuclear arsenal has been reduced by 84% from its maximum level of 31,225 warheads at the end of fiscal year 1967.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday said that Iran's nuclear program put the world at risk and called on global nations to rally around US efforts to hold Tehran to account. "Iran is the only country represented in this hall that has been found by the IAEA board of governors to be currently in non-compliance with its nuclear safeguard obligations," Clinton said in a speech to a Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) review conference at the United Nations.
"It has defied the UN Security Council and the IAEA and placed the future of the non-proliferation regime in jeopardy, and that is why it is facing increasing isolation and pressure from the international community," she said.
Clinton spoke to the meeting of the 189 signatories of the 1970 NPT just hours after Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad blasted the United States for threatening to use nuclear arms, triggering a sharp American response and a walkout by several delegations.
Ahmadinejad said having nuclear weapons was "disgusting and shameful, and even more shameful is the threat to use, or to use, such weapons."
"Regrettably, the government of the United States has not only used nuclear weapons but also continues to threaten to use such weapons against other countries, including Iran," he said.
The Iranian president called for states that threaten to use atomic weapons to be punished, a clear reference to a new US nuclear strategy released last month.
He urged "considering any threat to use nuclear weapons or attack against peaceful nuclear facilities as a breach of international peace and security."
Such threats should meet with "swift reaction from the United Nations and termination of all cooperation of NPT member states with the threatening aggressor state," Ahmadinejad said, adding that among the punishments that should be meted out to countries that use, or threaten to use, atomic weapons against other nations is suspension from the board of governors of the UN nuclear watchdog in Vienna.
Ahmadinejad also hinted that Israel and an unnamed European country had made nuclear threats.
His attacks against the United States and its allies triggered the walkout. Delegates from the United States, Britain, France and several non-nuclear weapons states left the assembly hall.
The Iranian leader went on to attack Israel directly, saying, "The Zionist regime continues to threaten the countries of the Middle East with its arsenal. It continues to threaten the world's countries with acts of terror and invasion, and even gets the necessary assistance for its nuclear program."
The United States' so-called nuclear posture review reduces the role of atomic weapons in US defense policy but does not rule out the use of nuclear warheads against countries like Iran and North Korea that are according to the US considered to be “NPT violators”.
According to the Iranian television IRIB reported that a Fox news reporter “was angry Monday that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had been appreciated by the participants of the NPT Review Conference despite his critical remarks about US policies and calling Israel as Zionist regime .
IRIB added that “in his report, Fox news reporter Eric Shawn, also expressed regret that while President Ahmadinejad denied that his country was to make nuclear bomb and instead said that the US should be punished for possessing nuclear weapons, he was still appreciated by the participants . ”
Both the United States and Israel have suggested that they could use military force against Iranian nuclear facilities, which they suspect are part of a covert atomic weapons program. Iran denies pursuing atomic weapons and insists its nuclear program is limited to peacefully generating electricity.
In his speech, Ahmadinejad rejected allegations that his country is developing nuclear weapons, citing "not a single credible proof."
Clinton said the world stood at a crossroads, facing a future either of sharply reduced nuclear risk or of a spread of nuclear-armed states and groups, and that issues such as Iran's nuclear program could determine which path is taken. "Rules must be binding. Violations must be punished. Words must mean something and the world must stand together to prevent the spread of these weapons," Clinton said. "It is time for a strong international response."
She also said the United States would ratify nuclear weapons-free zones in Africa and the South Pacific and also support "practical measures" to establish the Middle East as a region free of weapons of mass destruction - which could pique US ally Israel, presumed to have a sizable nuclear arsenal. However, Clinton later told reporters that conditions for such a zone in the Middle East did not yet exist.
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