nuclear-news

Nicaragua’s President urges Israel to foster peace, destroy nuclear weapons

Nicaragua’s Ortega urges Israel to destroy nuclear arms By Dave Graham, MANAGUA | Wed Jan 11, 2012  (Reuters) – Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega on Tuesday urged Israel to destroy its nuclear weapons to foster peace in the Middle East as he hosted Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who is touring Latin America.

Speaking in a ceremony where he was sworn in for a second consecutive
term in office, Ortega attacked the U.S. “occupation” of Afghanistan
and Iraq, condemned the killing of former Libyan leader Muammar
Gaddafi…
Ortega – flanked by his close ally, Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez –
defended Iran’s stated intention to develop atomic energy for peaceful
ends, an explanation Western powers say is a cover for a nuclear
weapons program.

“Simply by starting to push for talks in the region in which the steps
are laid down for Israel to give up and destroy these nuclear arms,
I’m certain this would bring about great peace in the region,” the
former Marxist guerrilla said.

Instead, western powers are ignoring those with nuclear weapons and
threatening a country which only wanted atomic energy for peaceful
purposes, Ortega added, pointing to Iran….. In his long speech,
Ortega called the killing of Gaddafi in October a “crime” and said the
late Libyan leader should have been put on trial if there had been
evidence against him.

With Chavez at times looking on intently from the side, Ortega took
aim at arms manufacturers, and said the U.S. invasion of Iraq had been
built on falsehood. Next to Chavez sat Ahmadinejad and his
interpreter……

January 12, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | SOUTH AMERICA, weapons and war