Nuclear Age Peace Foundation

Tag: Iran deal

  • Violating the Iran Deal: Playing With Nuclear Fire

    Violating the Iran Deal: Playing With Nuclear Fire

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    David KriegerPresident Trump has demonstrated yet again why he lacks the understanding, intelligence and temperament to be president of the United States. By violating the Iran nuclear deal, he is undermining the security of the U.S., our allies and the world. There are many good reasons that the U.S. should have remained in the agreement, but Trump exploded those when he took the U.S out of the agreement.

    First, the U.S. withdrawal makes it more likely that Iran will return to pursuing a nuclear weapons program. Given Trump’s threats, this will increase the possibility of a war with Iran, which would be costly in blood and treasure.

    Second, it will be detrimental to U.S. relations with allies UK, France and Germany, all of which tried to dissuade the U.S. from withdrawing. Further, it will be detrimental to U.S. relations with Russia and China, which are also parties to the agreement. Under Trump, the U.S. is isolating itself and diminishing its leadership role in world affairs.

    Third, it demonstrates that U.S. commitments are not to be relied upon. This will make it harder for other nations to trust the U.S. to keep its word. This may be a problem for the prospects for peace on the Korean Peninsula.

    What lies behind Trump’s decision to leave the Iran deal? Again, there are different possibilities. One possibility is his seeming desire to reverse whatever Barack Obama achieved. In Trump logic, Obama’s legacy is to be reversed, regardless of the costs of doing so. Another possibility is that Trump is playing to his base, those who support U.S. arrogance in international relations regardless of the costs involved. Yet another possibility is that Trump wants to have a reason to go to war with Iran, and to use this as an excuse to solidify his power in the U.S. in the same way that Hitler did with the Reichstag fire.

    Trump is literally playing with fire – nuclear fire – whether he understands it or not. He just made a very dangerous and ill-considered move on the chessboard of international affairs. But now, instead of having General H. R. McMaster, a relatively steady and sane person at the helm of the National Security Council, he has John Bolton, a cheerleader for regime change and a man who never met a war he didn’t like. In March 2018, Bolton published an opinion piece in The New York Times with the title, “To Stop Iran’s Bomb, Bomb Iran,” monumentally dangerous advice.

    America, beware. Trump has just fired another serious warning shot across the bow of democracy, one that bodes ill for the nuclear non-proliferation regime, for peace and for the future of our democratic institutions. Once again, Trump has shown clearly that he is not fit to be president, and his impeachment should be undertaken as a matter of urgency.

    David Krieger is a founder of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation and has served as its president since 1982.

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  • Trump Withdraws U.S. from Iran Nuclear Deal: There Will Be Negative Consequences

    Trump Withdraws U.S. from Iran Nuclear Deal: There Will Be Negative Consequences

    For Immediate Release

    Contact:
    Sandy Jones: (805) 965-3443; sjones@napf.org

    Washington, D.C.–Trump’s decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Iran Nuclear Accord is a dangerous move and will have major international consequences. The U.S. is preparing to reinstate the sanctions it had waived as part of the nuclear accord and impose additional economic penalties as well.

    The decision to withdraw from the treaty:

    1. Makes it more likely Iran will pursue nuclear weapons.
    2. Makes war between the U.S. and Iran more likely.
    3. Separates the U.S. from its major allies.
    4. Shows U.S. commitments are not reliable.
    5. Further reinforces lack of U.S. leadership in the world.
    6. Will likely have adverse effects on achieving nuclear deal with N. Korea.

    Trump’s decision puts America’s relations with its allies into new and uncertain territory. U.S. allies are committed to staying in the deal, thus raising the prospect of diplomatic and economic disputes as the U.S. reimposes stringent sanctions on Iran. Importantly, it also raises the potential for increased tensions with Russia and China, also parties to the agreement.

    The decision flies in the face of intense lobbying by European leaders who made numerous attempts to produce fixes to the deal that would satisfy Trump. Trump’s prior advisers had persuaded him twice last year not to go this route. However, his newest set of considerably more hawkish advisers, Mike Pompeo and John Bolton, did not act to restrain Trump this time around.

    David Krieger, President of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation commented, “This may be the worst foreign policy decision of our time. It vividly demonstrates the downsides to having a U.S. president who is an incompetent bully. He appears more intent on punishing Iran than on maintaining a well-worked out deal, supported by our major allies, to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power. This is yet another reason that there is urgency to impeach Mr. Trump.”

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    If you would like to interview David Krieger, President of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation or Rick Wayman, Director of Programs and Operations, please call the Foundation at (805) 965-3443.

    The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation’s mission is to educate and advocate for peace and a world free of nuclear weapons and to empower peace leaders. Founded in 1982, the Foundation is comprised of individuals and organizations worldwide who realize the imperative for peace in the Nuclear Age. The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation is a non-partisan, non-profit organization with consultative status to the United Nations. For more information, visit wagingpeace.org.

  • After the Iran Nuclear Agreement: Will the Nuclear Powers Also Play by the Rules?

    When all is said and done, what the recently-approved Iran nuclear agreement is all about is ensuring that Iran honors its commitment under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) not to develop nuclear weapons.

    But the NPT—which was ratified in 1968 and which went into force in 1970—has two kinds of provisions.  The first is that non-nuclear powers forswear developing a nuclear weapons capability.  The second is that nuclear-armed nations divest themselves of their own nuclear weapons.  Article VI of the treaty is quite explicit on this second point, stating: “Each of the Parties to the Treaty undertakes to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race and to nuclear disarmament, and on a treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control.”

    What has been the record of the nuclear powers when it comes to compliance with the NPT?

    The good news is that there has been some compliance.  Thanks to a variety of nuclear arms control and disarmament agreements negotiated among the major nuclear powers, plus some unilateral action, the world’s total nuclear weapons stockpile has been reduced by more than two- thirds.

    On the other hand, 45 years after the NPT went into effect, nine nations continue to cling to about 16,000 nuclear weapons, thousands of which remain on hair-trigger alert.  These nations not only include the United States and Russia (which together possess more than 90 percent of them), but Britain, France, China, Israel, India, Pakistan, and North Korea.  If their quarrels—of which there are many—ever get out of hand, there is nothing to prevent these nations from using their nuclear weapons to lay waste to the world on a scale unprecedented in human history.

    Equally dangerous, from the standpoint of the future, is that, these nations have recently abandoned negotiating incremental nuclear disarmament agreements and have plunged, instead, into programs of nuclear weapons “modernization.”  In the United States, this modernization—which is projected to cost $1 trillion over the next 30 years—will include everything from ballistic missiles to bombers, warheads to naval vessels, cruise missiles to nuclear weapons factories.  In Russia, the government is in the process of replacing all of its Soviet era nuclear weapons systems with new, upgraded versions.  As for Britain, the government has committed itself to building a new nuclear-armed submarine fleet called Successor, thereby continuing the nation’s nuclear status into the second half of the twenty-first century.  Meanwhile, as the Arms Control Association recently reported, China, India, and Pakistan “are all pursuing new ballistic missile, cruise missile, and sea-based delivery systems.”

    Thus, despite the insistence of the nuclear powers that Iran comply with the NPT, it is pretty clear that these nuclear-armed countries do not consider themselves bound to comply with this landmark agreement, signed by 189 nations.  Some of the nuclear powers, in fact, have been quite brazen in rejecting it.  Israel, India, and Pakistan have long defied the NPT—first by refusing to sign it and, later, by going ahead and building their own nuclear weapons.  North Korea, once a signatory to the treaty, has withdrawn from it.

    In the aftermath of the Iranian government’s agreement to comply with the treaty, would it not be an appropriate time to demand that the nuclear-armed nations do so?

    At the least, the nuclear nations should agree to halt nuclear weapons “modernization” and to begin negotiating the long-delayed treaty to scrap the 16,000 nuclear weapons remaining in their arsenals.  Having arranged for strict verification procedures to ensure that Iran does not develop nuclear weapons, they should be familiar with procedures for verification of their own nuclear disarmament.

    After all, isn’t sauce for the goose also sauce for the gander?

    [Dr. Lawrence Wittner (http://lawrenceswittner.com) is Professor of History emeritus at SUNY/Albany.  His latest book is a satirical novel about university corporatization and rebellion, What’s Going On at UAardvark?]