Tagged with Nuclear Proliferation

Korean Nuclear Crisis – time for Labour to call for dialogue to stop nuclear proliferation

With tensions escalating on the Korean peninsula in what is possibly the most serious nuclear crisis since that over the Cuban missiles in 1962, PM David Cameron’s assertion that Britain’s possession of nuclear weapons ‘was necessary’, was not merely opportunistic and hypocritical but utterly dangerous. Whilst other world leaders ­ Ban Ki-moon, the Russian and Chinese governments, as well as leading politicians in South Korea and the US – have all been calling on both sides in the conflict to show restraint, Cameron was in effect inflaming the situation, giving a green light not least to those in South Korea and Japan who would have their countries develop their own nuclear weapons.

The problem for the Labour Party is that one of its Shadow Defence Secretaries, Kevan Jones, echoed this endorsement of the Trident nuclear weapons system, with the only qualification being that of cost, not of nuclear posture. Continue reading →

US folly on Iran

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When will the US ever learn that the Iranian problem is insoluble outside the framework of  a wider non-nuclear agreement for the Middle East as a whole?   The latest round of sanctions – the fourth since 2006 – won’t cut any ice with a determined and intransigent Iran at all.   But there is an alternative.

The sanctions strategy focuses primarily on financial restrictions, an enlarged arms embargo, and notice of vigilance to UN member states concerning a number of Iranian activities.   It will fail for several reasons.    It’s far short of the set of crippling measures the US planned because of the need to win over Russia and China.  Continue reading →