Is the U.S. Working to Sabotage Its Nuke Deal with Iran?

According to Asia Times, the U.S. is adopting an Israeli policy platform that could scuttle the prospects of a nuke deal with Iran.

The Barack Obama administration's insistence that Iran discuss its ballistic missile program in the negotiations for a comprehensive nuclear agreement brings its position into line with that of Israel and senators who introduced legislation drafted by the pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC aimed at torpedoing the negotiations.

White House spokesman Jay Carney highlighted the new US demand in a statement Wednesday that the Iranians "have to deal with matters related to their ballistic missile program".

Carney cited United Nations Security Council resolution 1929, approved in 2010, which prohibited any activity related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including missile launches. "So that's completely agreed by Iran in the Joint Plan of Action," he added.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif not only explicitly contradicted Carney's claim that Iran had agreed to discuss ballistic missiles but warned that a US demand for discussion of its missile program would violate a red line for Iran.

"Nothing except Iran's nuclear activities will be discussed in the talks with the [six powers known as the P5+1], and we have agreed on it," he said, according to Iran's IRNA.

The pushback by Zarif implies that the US position would seriously risk the breakdown of the negotiations if the Obama administration were to persist in making the demand.

Nuke News RoundUp

It's so much more than just Fukushima.

America may have dodged a couple of nuke bullets recently.  Wildfires still blaze around the nuke weapons lab at Los Alamos, New Mexico where there was fear for the safety of an old nuclear waste dump.   While the fires still rage Los Alamos officials report the imperiled nuke waste has been dug up and relocated to a nice, safe place.

"For Los Alamos, it's been a great day," Los Alamos County Fire Chief Doug Tucker said on Thursday. "Everything is holding."   Now ain't that swell?

Over in Minot, North Dakota, sandbags and pumps have managed to keep 150-ballistic missile silos safe from the rampaging floodwaters of the Souris River.  Yippee.

Meanwhile the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists is about to release a report that pegs Pakistan as expanding its nuclear arsenal faster than any other nation on earth.   At the rate they're going, Pakistan could have 200-nuclear warheads within ten years.

"Despite its political instability, Pakistan continues to steadily expand its nuclear capabilities and competencies; in fact, it has the world's fastest-growing nuclear stockpile," wrote analysis authors Hans Kristensen and Robert Norris.

But Pakistani muscle doesn't seem to faze the Yanks who are simply ignoring Pakistan's orders for them to clear out their drone operation at Shamsi air base.

U.S. forces continue to operate out of the Shamsi Air Base, located in an isolated part of Pakistan, and there are no preparations being made for them to leave regardless of Pakistani claims to the contrary, an informed U.S. official said.

"That base is neither vacated nor being vacated," the anonymous official said. Another U.S. government source backed up the remarks.

Oh, and yeah, Fukushima is still Fuk'd up and, according to Israel, Iran is still forging ahead with its effort to build the bomb.

Do They Stay or Do They Go? Europe's Tactical Nukes

Sam Nunn and the Nuclear Threat Initiative are adamant - tactical nuclear weapons, the legacy of the Cold War in Europe, have to be secured and scrapped.  In an op-ed piece in The New York Times, the former senator described these mini-nukes as "a terrorist's dream."

If we don’t address this issue with urgency, we may wake up one day to a 1972 Munich-Olympics scenario, with a masked terrorist waving a gun outside of a nuclear warhead bunker somewhere in Europe. This time the hostages could be millions of people living close by. 

Nunn isn't exaggerating.  There are plenty of these nuclear warhead bunkers throughout Europe and terrorists would have the advantage of initiative in deciding which of them to attack and when.  These are battlefield weapons, intended to be used against enemy formations.  They come in many forms including nuclear land mines, nuclear-tipped cruise missiles, nuclear artillery shells and nuclear bombs to be slung under the wings of jet fighters.   Generally speaking they're more powerful than the nukes dropped on Japan in 1945.

Nunn and his colleagues at NTI, including George Schultz and Henry Kissinger, argue forcefully for scrapping of nuclear weapons.  They argue there has been so much proliferation already and so many non-nuclear states poised on the brink of developing their own weapons that another nuclear war capable of sparking a global nuclear holocaust is almost inevitable.   They believe the only way to stop that is a general, nuclear disarmament.

NTI is trying to get its message across in time for the NATO summit that begins tomorrow in Lisbon.   However PressEurop is reporting that the decision has already been taken, those nukes are staying.

“Tactical nuclear weapons to stay in Europe,” announces De Standaard. The Belgian daily explains that NATO’s new strategic concept, to be approved at a summit scheduled for 19 and 20 November, does not call for the withdrawal of 200 American nuclear weapons located in Europe. Some countries like Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany and Norway believe that “these weapons have no military purpose.” However, given their proximity to Iran and Russia, Turkey and the Baltic countries are staunchly opposed to any withdrawal. De Standaard notes that France is adamant that the Alliance should not be used to promote the cause of nuclear disarmament in Europe.