(May 29, 2024)
The drone that targeted the radar station near Orsk, in Russia’s Orenburg region along Kazakhstan’s northern border, traveled more than 1,100 miles, making it one of the deepest attempted strikes into Russian territory. The Ukrainian official declined to say whether the strike, on May 26, caused any damage.
(May 28, 2024)
Ukraine began its nascent campaign against Russia‘s early warning radar network in April, with successive drone strikes on the 590th separate radio engineering center of military unit 84680 in the city of Kovylkino, in the Mordovia Republic around 360 miles from the Ukrainian border.
As East-West tensions over Ukraine enter a new and dangerous phase, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and U.S. President Joe Biden are holding talks in Washington on Friday on whether to allow Kyiv to use long-range U.S. ATACMS or British Storm Shadow missiles against targets in Russia.
After a week of being very careful regarding statements directed at Iran, the US gave Israel something to be satisfied about on Wednesday. US President Joe Biden said America’s commitment to Israel’s security, amid the threats from Iran and its proxies, is “ironclad.”
Biden’s statements are aimed directly at Iran, and it’s certainly possible that they’re the result of a worrying intelligence assessment Israel presented to the US.
„We didn‘t have troops there (at the Finnish border), now they will be there. There were no systems of destruction there, now they will appear,“ he said.
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, accused by critics of being too cosy with Moscow, said after the meeting that there was disunity on the issue among European leaders.
„There are countries that are ready to send their own soldiers to Ukraine, there are countries that say never – Slovakia is among them – and there are countries that say that this proposal should be considered,“ he said.
rench President Emmanuel Macron has openly discussed the possibility of sending European troops to Ukraine to help Kyiv win the war against Russia, a potential major escalation to the largest ground war Europe has seen since World War II.
Western media reports claiming that Russia could place nuclear weapons in space are nothing more than a ploy by the White House to convince US lawmakers to approve further military aid to Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.
Citing sources, several US media outlets reported this week that American intelligence had obtained information on purported Russian plans to deploy a nuclear anti-satellite system in space, although the idea supposedly remains at the developmental stage.
(January 5, 2024)
In 1988, the Central Intelligence Agency did discover that Riyadh bought SS-2 medium-range missiles from China but only after the deal was sealed. In 2003, when China exported DF-21 ballistic missiles to the Kingdom, the CIA again found out and was even allowed to verify the missiles were not nuclear-capable, but only after the missiles were delivered.
Several years later, when intelligence finally leaked out that China secretly built missile factories for the Saudis, the Trump administration was mum on whether there was an intelligence failure and allowed speculation that it had blessed the transaction. Then, in 2020, when US intelligence confirmed China was helping the Kingdom mill uranium domestically, it did so, again only after the mining and milling were well underway.
This track record of studied inadvertence, then, brings us to the next worry: MBS wants Washington to green-light the Kingdom enriching uranium…
(19 October 2023)
The United States and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) have for over a decade negotiated without success the terms of an agreement for peaceful nuclear cooperation. These negotiations have intensified recently in the context of US efforts to broker a normalisation agreement between the KSA and Israel, which have included discussions about how the US could solidify its own support for Saudi Arabia. On the 7th of October 2023, Hamas terrorists appeared to drive a stake through the heart of the US effort to broker Israel-KSA normalisation. This has sent shockwaves through the region, and the full implications remain uncertain. However, it seems likely that in the longer run, rationales for normalisation and for US nuclear engagement with Riyadh will remain, reflecting the fact that the Hamas attacks underscored that a future nuclear-armed Iran would be a yet more formidable adversary for both Israel and the KSA.
Eliyahu expressed, in statements to Israeli radio station 103 FM, that Israel must decide the battle by breaking the morale of the Palestinians in Gaza and causing them pain involving their land, destroying homes, breaking their national dream and voluntary immigration. When the presenter interrupted him, saying this was not possible, Eliyahu replied that it was, similar to what happened during the Arab Spring when large numbers of the region’s population immigrated to Germany.
#Gaza #genocide
Kim lashed out at Washington in lengthy remarks wrapping up five days of ruling party meetings that set economic, military and foreign policy goals for the coming year.
„Because of reckless moves by the enemies to invade us, it is a fait accompli that a war can break out at any time on the Korean peninsula,“ he said, according to state news agency KCNA.
“Every word has meaning when it comes to diplomacy. If you don’t know — don’t speak,” the prime minister said during Sunday’s cabinet meeting.
“We must be sensitive,” he added.
The prime minister was referring to recent comments by ministers that are viewed as having caused damage to Israel’s international legitimacy.
The Israeli minister’s comments showed the penetration of “extremism and brutality” among members of the Israeli government, a Saudi Foreign Ministry statement said.
“Moreover, not dismissing the minister and only freezing his membership constitutes the utmost disregard for all human standards and values,” it added.
„These statements constitute a violation of international law, as well as incitement to commit grave violations of International Humanitarian Law, such as war crimes, and raise grave concerns of an intent to commit genocide,“ the UAE said. Jordan released a similar statement describing Eliyahu‘s comments as a „call for genocide and a hate crime that cannot be ignored,“ while the Qatari Foreign Ministry said that it „strongly condemns the threat made by an Israeli minister to strike Gaza with a nuclear bomb and considers it a serious incitement to a war crime.“
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel took the highly unusual step on Sunday of suspending a far-right minister from his government, after the minister said that dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza and killing everyone there was “one way” of dealing with the threat from Hamas.
(November 3, 2023)
Euro-Med Monitor highlighted that the weight of the nuclear bombs dropped by the United States on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan at the end of World War II in August 1945 was estimated at about 15,000 tonnes, adding that due to technological developments affecting the potency of bombs, the explosives dropped on Gaza may be twice as powerful as a nuclear bomb.
“This means that the destructive power of the explosives dropped on Gaza exceeds that of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima,” Euro-Med Monitor said.
During the interview, Eliyahu raised his objection to allowing any humanitarian aid into Gaza. “We wouldn’t hand the Nazis humanitarian aid… there is no such thing as uninvolved civilians in Gaza,” the minister was quoted as saying.
Eliyahu also backed retaking the Gaza Strip’s territory and restoring the settlements there, the report added. Asked about the fate of Palestinian civilians Eliyahu said, “They can go to Ireland or deserts, the monsters in Gaza should find a solution by themselves.”
Heritage minister Amichai Eliyahu of the Otzma Yehudit party is quoted by the Times of Israel as saying in an interview that the Palestinian people “can go to Ireland or deserts, the monsters in Gaza should find a solution by themselves”, adding that those who wave a Palestinian or Hamas flag “shouldn’t continue living on the face of the earth”.
It quotes him saying that dropping a nuclear bomb on the Gaza Strip “is one of the possibilities”, and that humanitarian aid to the population should be restricted, saying “we wouldn’t hand the Nazis humanitarian aid. There is no such thing as uninvolved civilians in Gaza.”
(June 7, 2017)
The established pattern of constraints on Iran’s nuclear program could be held as the gold standard for the rest of the international community. This option is readily available to the United States and the partners with which it negotiated the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA): China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom and the European Union. The international community should draw on that agreement and turn its standards into general, global ones, applying them to all countries seeking to enrich uranium or attempting to use plutonium for any purpose.
(12.09.2022)
According to a diplomatic source, Prime Minister Yair Lapid presented the Germans with intelligence that ‚proves the Iranians are cheating as we speak,‘ claiming the Americans‘ hardened their stance in response to the information
(Oct 5, 2023)
For many years, the United States, Israel, Middle East analysts and nuclear experts have all warned that the region could be on the brink of a nuclear domino effect.
(October 5, 2023)
Fitzpatrick notes Saudi Arabia acquired more advanced DF-21 missiles from China in 2007, although Riyadh has never acknowledged the purchase. He also says that the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) approved Saudi Arabia’s acquisition because they were modified not to carry nuclear warheads.
However, the inaccuracy of those missiles means that they are only suitable for large targets such as cities and would be ineffective with anything less than a nuclear warhead.
(March 27, 2019)
Many U.S. lawmakers are concerned that sharing nuclear technology with Saudi Arabia could eventually lead to a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. (…)
Last month, Democratic House members alleged in a report that top White House aides ignored warnings they could be breaking the law as they worked with former U.S. officials in a group called IP3 International to advance a multibillion-dollar plan to build nuclear reactors in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia.
(June 7, 2017)
The established pattern of constraints on Iran’s nuclear program could be held as the gold standard for the rest of the international community. This option is readily available to the United States and the partners with which it negotiated the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA): China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom and the European Union. The international community should draw on that agreement and turn its standards into general, global ones, applying them to all countries seeking to enrich uranium or attempting to use plutonium for any purpose.
Switching to a broader inspection regime will enable the kingdom to access fissile material and start running its small nuclear reactor.
The developments come amid increasing concern among nuclear nonproliferation experts and lawmakers about Saudi Arabia‘s intentions with the technology, and the potential for a Middle Eastern arms race.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters before the interview was shown that it was best for the leaders of Israel and Saudi Arabia „to speak to how close they think they are, and where they think they are“ in the process.
„Obviously, we encourage normalization. We think it‘s good not just for Israel and Saudi Arabia, we think it‘s good for the whole region,“ Kirby said.
(August 26, 2023)
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Amid reports that Netanyahu directed top Israeli nuclear experts to partake in negotiations over a U.S.-Saudi deal, Lapid says a stance allowing Saudi enrichment is ‚reckless,‘ and warns it will trigger a ‚Middle East nuclear arms race‘
(September 14, 2023)
Top Israeli sources have told the Jerusalem Post that there are secret technological ways to ensure that the Saudis do not misuse civilian nuclear items, which the US may give them as part of a three-way normalization deal, for military purposes.
Although there are no guarantees, because the issue is highly technical and there are issues to address regarding the Palestinians and highly complex politics, these technological fixes could be key to locking in a normalization deal between Riyadh and Jerusalem, under Washington’s auspices.
In a massive breakthrough, the G20 member states on Saturday adopted a 100 percent consensus to the New Delhi Leaders‘ Summit Declaration, announced Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Calling it “historic and pathbreaking”, G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant said India‘s G20 Presidency “delivered phenomenal action on high ambitions for the world.”
“In line with the UN Charter, all states must refrain from the threat or use of force to seek territorial acquisition against the territorial integrity and sovereignty or political independence of any state. The use or threat of use of nuclear weapons is inadmissible.”
The declaration was adopted after prolonged negotiations on the outcome document that had been held up over a reference to Ukraine.
Although the subject of media frenzy in the immediate aftermath of the 1999 Kosovo conflict, the use of depleted uranium ammunition in Iraq 2003 raised little media attention. How could the use of such a controversial weapon in 1991 go largely unnoticed just four years later? Does this lack of global condemnation necessarily lead to the conclusion that the “dictates of the public conscience” have evolved in regard to the use of this previously controversial weapon of war? This article seeks to analyze the legality of the use of depleted uranium ammunition — the main question being whether the existing laws of armed conflict are already sufficient to address any human and environmental concerns.
Depleted uranium is a byproduct of the uranium enrichment process needed to create nuclear weapons. The rounds retain some radioactive properties, but they can’t generate a nuclear reaction like a nuclear weapon would, RAND nuclear expert and policy researcher Edward Geist said.
(30 August 2023, 10:27 pm)
Earlier this month, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer said in an interview that Israel does not necessarily have a problem with a Saudi civilian nuclear program. Netanyahu’s office later issued a statement downplaying the remark, although a source close to the premier was quoted by Hebrew media reiterating that Israel “doesn’t rule out” the idea of Riyadh enriching uranium.
“You have countries in the region that can have civilian nuclear power. That’s a different story than a nuclear weapons program,” Dermer said in an interview with PBS.
(23 August 2023)
“It is disgusting and disappointing to hear that arms companies will be sponsoring talks at the Labour Party conference,” Emily Apple, media coordinator at Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT), told openDemocracy. “These companies should not be given this legitimacy or the opportunity to lobby policy makers in order to continue making profits for their shareholders from a deadly trade that causes destruction and misery around the world.”
She added: “Accepting sponsorship from these companies sends a bleak message to anyone thinking a future Labour government will adopt any kind of ethical stance towards the arms trade.”
Open Democracy reported that Boeing, Babcock International, and Palantir, will join fossil fuels firms, private healthcare companies, and banks as sponsors at the conference, which takes place in Liverpool this October. Many of the fringe events will be hosted by The New Statesman Media Group.
Boeing, one of the largest US arms companies, manufactures the land-based Minutemen Intercontinental Ballistic Missile for the US Air Force. The UK-based Babcock, which operates the Devonport dockyard in Plymouth, has been involved in designing components for and maintaining Britain’s nuclear-armed fleet for over 50 years.
(17.08.2023)
The report came a week after two Democratic lawmakers told The Times of Israel that they were “dumbfounded” by US President Joe Biden’s decision to pursue the normalization agreement in addition to potentially accepting Israel into the US Visa Waiver Program, in what will shore up Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government at a time when they believe it is egregiously undermining the administration’s interests with its judicial overhaul and antagonizing policies toward the Palestinians.
(Aug. 17, 2023)
Riyadh’s demands about a civilian nuclear program could also create unique political hurdles in Congress. Saudi Arabia is seeking a partnership that would allow the country to enrich its own uranium, a demand that if it were to exceed the tight restrictions outlined in the Atomic Energy Act, would require the approval of both the House and Senate.
(Aug 16, 2023)
Riyadh’s ambitions to secure American nuclear cooperation date to the George W. Bush administration. However, negotiations have stalled over the US demand that Saudi Arabia forgo domestic uranium enrichment because of the risk of nuclear weapons proliferation. Saudi Arabia has resisted this protocol, asserting sovereignty over its uranium resources and apprehension toward Iran’s increased enrichment in recent years.
(March 27, 2019)
Many U.S. lawmakers are concerned that sharing nuclear technology with Saudi Arabia could eventually lead to a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. (…)
Last month, Democratic House members alleged in a report that top White House aides ignored warnings they could be breaking the law as they worked with former U.S. officials in a group called IP3 International to advance a multibillion-dollar plan to build nuclear reactors in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia.
(August 9, 2023)
This month, as House and Senate conferees begin to iron out differences between the two chambers on a nearly $900 billion Pentagon spending bill for next fiscal year, both the House and Senate armed services committees want to place a new generation of nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missiles (known as SLCM-Ns) back on Navy vessels. That would be a mistake.
(Apr 3, 2023)
n this YouTube video, we delve into the science behind the neutron bomb, a meticulously crafted nuclear weapon developed during the Cold War. Learn how this bomb‘s perfect balance between minimizing blast radius and maximizing neutron radiation makes it so deadly.
(Dec. 1, 2010)
In contrast to strategic warheads, which can kill millions and level cities, and smaller short-range tactical nuclear arms designed to wipe out battlefield forces, the neutron bomb minimized blast and heat. Instead, it maximized a barrage of infinitesimal neutrons that could zip through tanks, buildings and other structures and kill people, usually by destroying the central nervous system, and all other life forms.
(…)
The Reagan administration developed but never deployed the weapons in the 1980s. France, Israel and the Soviet Union were believed to have added versions of the bomb to their arsenals. Western military planners rejected their use in the Vietnam War and regarded them only as a possible deterrent to superior Soviet tank forces in Europe. But the end of the cold war obviated even that purpose.
(Nov. 15, 1981)
The long years of engineering grew out of a notion originated by Samuel T. Cohen, a Defense Department consultant, in the mid-1950‘s. Around 1957, at the instigation of Edward Teller at the Lawrence Livermore weapons laboratory, work began that led to the development of a device which, according to Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger, “enables infantry to fight closely behind it, as with conventional artillery.“
(…)
Of all NATO governments, none was put in a more awkward position than Helmut Schmidt‘s. In 1978, the West German Chancellor, under heavy pressure from the Carter Administration, had sought his Cabinet‘s support to allow neutron deployment. The Chancellor privately won his Cabinet‘s approval but Mr. Carter, lacking any open backing from Bonn, deferred the matter, deeply embarrassing Chancellor Schmidt. Then, in December 1979, NATO agreed to accept 572 new Pershing-2 and cruise missiles to offset a new generation of Soviet SS-20 missiles. It was assumed that this action indefinitely postponed any revival of the neutron bomb.