| New Disarmament Agenda Recognizes CTBT’s Intrinsic Role Viewpoint by Izumi Nakamitsu  The author is High Representative of the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA). Following are extensive excerpts from her keynote speech on May 25, 2018 at the High Level Session of the Second Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) Science Diplomacy Symposium from May 21-June 1, 2018 in Vienna. – The Editor.VIENNA (IDN) – The CTBTO Preparatory Commission [headed by Executive Secretary Lassina Zerbo] continues to play a critical role in promoting the long overdue entry into force of the CTBT.Read More What Kazakhstan’s Nuclear Legacy Means For CTBTO Viewpoint by Marzhan Nurzhan  The CTBTO Youth Group (CYG) holds its second international conference in Kazakh capital city Astana from August 28-30, 2018. The author is a CYG member from Kazakhstan, a convener of Abolition 2000 Youth Network and a PNND Coordinator for CIS countries. This article first appeared in The Astana Times on May 29, 2018 with the title ‘Kazakhstan’s Nuclear Legacy and Importance of CTBTO’. It is being reproduced with the author’s permission. – The Editor.PRAGUE (IDN) – I am coming from Kazakhstan, the country which inherited around 1,500 nuclear weapons from the Soviet Union making it the 4th biggest nuclear arsenal in the world at the time.Read More World Peace Eludes, Nuclear Armageddon Looms Viewpoint by Somar Wijayadasa*  NEW YORK (IDN) – Lately, we have seen a barrage of international conflicts that have severely undermined the United Nations efforts to maintain peace and security.The British Prime Minister Theresa May – in total disregard for the noble British norm “innocent until proven guilty” – rushed to accuse Russia of trying to poison the Skripals, and provoked an unprecedented ouster of 151 Russian diplomats from UK, U.S. and EU that the Russians dutifully reciprocated.Read More ICAN Expects Nuclear Ban Treaty to Enter into Force in 2019 By Neena Bhandari  SYDNEY (IDN) – As the world witnesses an increase in nuclear sabre-rattling in 2018, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) is supporting global public movement to put pressure on governments to sign and ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. ICAN’s Treaty Coordinator Tim Wright (TW) spoke to IDN’s Neena Bhandari (NB) about disarmament, raising awareness about the risk and consequences of nuclear weapons, and why the world needs a nuclear ban treaty more than ever before. [P 06] ARABIC | CHINESE | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | KOREAN | NORWEGIAN | SWEDISHRead More Asian Sympathy Swinging Towards North Korea By Kalinga Seneviratne  SINGAPORE (IDN) – The frenzied moves over the weekend of May 26-27 by leaders of South Korea and North Korea to revive the on-again, off-again North Korea-US summit, and pictures flashed across the region of the two Korean leaders warmly hugging each other for the second time within a month, are rapidly turning public opinion across the region in North Korea’s favour with the United States and President Donald Trump seen as the “evil”.Read More Uncertainty Abounds As Trump Cancels Summit With Kim By Ramesh Jaura  BERLIN | GENEVA (IDN) – May 24, 2018 smacks of a ‘historic day’ marked by a smokescreen of uncertainty and speculations in the aftermath of U.S. President Donald Trump calling off his summit meeting with Kim Jong-un, the leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), commonly known as North Korea.The situation has prompted United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres to remark that he is “deeply concerned.” Speaking in Geneva on May 24, where he unveiled his new Agenda for Disarmament entitled, Securing Our Common Future, at the University of Geneva, in Switzerland, Guterres called on the U.S. and North Korea “to continue their dialogue to find a path to the peaceful and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”Read More The ‘Libyan Model’ is Unhelpful: Korea needs its Own Process for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament Viewpoint by Rebecca Johnson*  SEOUL (IDN) – I’m now in Seoul, taking part in the peace actions and international meetings organised by Women Cross the DMZ, referring to the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea.News has been dominated by fears that the US National Security Advisor, John Bolton, may have jeopardised the hoped-for Singapore Summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump. Was this Bolton’s intention? JapaneseRead More Thwart Saudi Threat To Acquire Nuclear Weapons By Daryl G. Kimball and Thomas Countryman  Following is the text of Statement from Daryl G. Kimball, Executive Director of the Arms Control Association and its Board of Directors Chairman and former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Nonproliferation,Thomas Countryman,– The EditorWASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN-INPS) – We are deeply disappointed by the counterproductive response from the Trump administration to the statements from senior Saudi officials threatening to pursue nuclear weapons in violation of their nonproliferation commitments.Read More The Bumpy Road to Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Process By Sergio DuarteThe writer is President of Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs.  NEW YORK (IDN) – On July 1, 2018 the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) will celebrate the fiftieth aniversary of its opening for signature. Although criticised as discriminatory for establishing different rights and obligations for nuclear and non-nuclear Parties, since that date in 1968 a total of 191 States have acceded to the Treaty, making it one of the most successful instruments in the field of arms control.Read More Nuclear Weapon States’ Long Arm Seen Behind Deferral of Landmark UN Conference By Alyn Ware*  NEW YORK (IDN) – May 14, 2018 was supposed to see the opening at the United Nations of a three-day High-Level Conference on Nuclear Disarmament, scheduled to discuss “effective nuclear disarmament measures to achieve the total elimination of nuclear weapons, including, in particular, on a comprehensive convention on nuclear weapons.”The UN General Assembly decided five years ago to hold such a conference in 2018, following a series of annual, one-day, high-level meetings at the United Nations. [P 05] GERMAN | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION VERSION PDFRead More CTBTO Must Credibly Confirm Dismantling & Closure of DPRK Nuclear-Weapon Test Site By Tariq Rauf *  While North Korea has invited journalists from a handful of countries to witness the dismantling and closure of its nuclear-weapon test site at Punggye Ri, only the Vienna-based Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) has the required expertise, verification technology and credibility to confirm the closure of the Punggye Ri test site.Contrary to popular belief, the highly competent International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has expertise only in monitoring and verification of civilian nuclear programmes, but not in the areas of dismantling of nuclear weapons and dismantling of nuclear-weapon test sites.The IAEA monitors the “upstream” dimension of nuclear weapons development while the CTBT is intended to monitor the “downstream” final proof of a State’s intention to develop nuclear weapons – that is, the actual nuclear test explosion.Read More Experts Predict Vast Ramifications of US Pullout From Iran Nuclear Deal By Santo D. Banerjee  NEW YORK (IDN) – President Donald Trump’s decision to abandon the Iran Nuclear Deal is fraught with multiple imponderables, according to experts. It’s “a costly mistake that can hold wide-ranging ramifications beyond its strictly nuclear parameters,” declared the 1995 Nobel Peace Prize winner Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs.The decision “not only blows up a functioning agreement, it also deals a significant blow to U.S. credibility as a partner in contract and diplomacy,” warned the 2017 Nobel Peace laureate ICAN (the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons). [P 04] ARABIC | HINDI | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION VERSION PDFRead More Canada Slams U.S. Decision to Quit Iran Nuclear Accord By Suresh Jaura  TORONTO (IDN) – In 2012, Canada abandoned diplomatic ties with Iran and closed its embassy in Tehran. Former Canadian minister of foreign affairs, John Baird, cited Iran’s support for the Assad regime during the Syrian Civil War and non-compliance with United Nations resolutions on its nuclear program, recalls Katie Dangerfield writing in Global News.When the Iran nuclear deal was created in July 2015, former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper was skeptical of the agreement between Iran and the P5+1 nations (US, UK, France, China, Russia and Germany). However, after Prime Minister Trudeau was elected in October 2015, he promised to restore ties between Iran and Canada, Dangerfield adds.Read More Iran Nuclear Deal Withdrawal ‘Misguided’, ‘Serious Mistake’ Viewpoint by Barack Obama  The following is the text of former President Barack Obama’s remarks on his successor Donald Trump’s decision on May 8, 2018 to withdraw the U.S. from the Iran nuclear deal. The original appeared on Obama’s Facebook https://www.facebook.com/barackobama/posts/10155854913976749 – The EditorWASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN-INPS) – There are few issues more important to the security of the United States than the potential spread of nuclear weapons, or the potential for even more destructive war in the Middle East. That’s why the United States negotiated the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in the first place.Read More |
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