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US open to nuclear agreement with Russia before including China

US open to nuclear agreement with Russia before including China

Top arms envoy indicates shift in Washington’s position on trilateral talks, Nikkei Asian Review, RYO NAKAMURA, Nikkei staff writerAugust 16, 2020 
WASHINGTON — The U.S. may move forward with a nuclear agreement with Russia first in a bid to apply pressure on Beijing to sign a weapons treaty, Washington’s top arms control negotiator said, despite characterizing China as an “urgent threat.”

Marshall Billingslea, the special presidential envoy for arms control, spoke with Nikkei days before traveling to Vienna to meet Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov on Monday and Tuesday for discussions on brokering an accord. Washington had been keen to strike a trilateral agreement with Moscow and Beijing, but is now open to a bilateral agreement with Russia first.

“That is, I think, a very prudent approach, particularly because we may be able to agree to something with Russia that would be the framework which we would want China to join,” Billingslea said in a phone interview on Friday.

The Vienna meeting, which Washington also invited China to, will focus on a successor to the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. That accord, also known as New START, was signed in 2010 and expires in February. In addition to nuclear warheads, the treaty limits the deployment of land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles, strategic bombers and submarine-launched ballistic missiles.

The Trump administration has sought a new treaty with three conditions: it includes China, adds restrictions on all types of nuclear weapons and strengthens and verification.

The U.S. has been particularly adamant about Beijing’s participation, but China has so far refused…….. https://asia.nikkei.com/Editor-s-Picks/Interview/US-open-to-nuclear-agreement-with-Russia-before-including-China

August 17, 2020 Posted by | politics international, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

The United States lost a bid to extend a U.N. arms embargo on Iran

U.S. loses Iran arms embargo bid as Putin pushes summit to avoid nuclear deal showdown CNBC

AUG 14 2020
KEY POINTS 
  • Russia and China opposed extending the arms embargo, which is due to expire in October under a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers.
  • Eleven members abstained, including France, Germany and Britain, while Washington and the Dominican Republic were the only yes votes.
  • The United States could now follow through on a threat to trigger a return of all U.N. sanctions on Iran using a provision in the nuclear deal, known as snapback, even though President Donald Trump abandoned the accord in 2018.

The United States lost a bid to extend a U.N. arms embargo on Iran on Friday as Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed a summit of world leaders to avoid “confrontation” over a U.S. threat to trigger a return of all U.N. sanctions on Tehran.

Russia and China opposed extending the weapons ban, which is due to expire in October under a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers. Eleven members abstained, including France, Germany and Britain, while Washington and the Dominican Republic were the only yes votes.

………… The United States has argued that it can trigger a sanctions snapback because a U.N. Security Council resolution enshrining the nuclear deal named Washington as a participant. But the remaining parties to the deal are opposed to the move.

Putin said Russia, an ally of Iran in the Syrian civil war, remained fully committed to the nuclear deal and that the aim of a summit would be to outline steps aimed at avoiding “confrontation and escalation of the situation in the Security Council.”…….

Trump, who has walked away from a series of international agreements, has dubbed the 2015 nuclear deal – reached under his predecessor Barack Obama – “the worst deal ever.”

Diplomats have said several countries would argue that the United States legally could not activate a return of sanctions and therefore simply would not reimpose the measures on Iran themselves. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/14/un-rejects-indefinite-extension-of-iran-arms-embargo-us-says.html

August 17, 2020 Posted by | politics international | Leave a comment

Work ongoing at US nuclear repository despite virus cases

Work ongoing at US nuclear repository despite virus cases, AntelopeValley Press,  16 Aug 20, CARLSBAD, N.M. (AP) — Managers of the federal government’s underground nuclear waste repository in southern New Mexico say operations are ongoing despite a recent increase in COVID-19 cases among workers.

The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant has seen cases among workers more than double in the last week, the Carlsbad Current-Argus reported.

The plant last Monday announced four new cases among employees of Nuclear Waste Partnership, the contractor that oversees daily operations at the facility. In all, the plant has reported at least 14 positive cases among employees and subcontractors.

The plant is in the second phase of resuming normal operations after having slowed the emplacement of waste this spring when the pandemic began, said spokesperson Bobby St. John. ……….

August 17, 2020 Posted by | health, wastes | Leave a comment

£20 billion Sizewell C nuclear project ‘Costly and dangerous’- actress Diana Quick

East Anglian Daily Times 16th Aug 2020, ‘Costly and dangerous’ – Brideshead Revisited actress Diana Quick on
why she opposes Sizewell C. Suffolk resident Diana Quick is perhaps taking
on one of her most important roles yet – as a leading campaigner against a
£20billion nuclear power station on the county’s coast. Having moved to
Suffolk in the 1980s, Ms Quick – also a writer and director – quickly took
an interest in plans for Sizewell B which, at that stage, were being
considered by a planning inspector.https://www.eadt.co.uk/news/diana-quick-sizewell-c-suffolk-1-6793919

August 17, 2020 Posted by | opposition to nuclear, UK | Leave a comment

Trump Hints about Meeting With Putin to Discuss Nuclear Treaty

August 17, 2020 Posted by | politics international, USA | Leave a comment

Houthis are actively enriching Thorium extracted from Yemeni mountains and sending it to Iran for arms manufacture.

Yemen Official Warns of Blast Worse than Beirut’s over Houthi Smuggling of Thorium to Iran

Asharq Al-Awsat, 16 August, 2020 Jeddah – Asma al-Ghabri

The Yemen Coalition of Independent Women held a virtual seminar titled “Iranian intervention: A History of Disorder in The Arab Countries,” which tackled a variety of issues, including the Iran-backed Houthi militias’ smuggling of Thorium from Yemen to Iran.

Hodeidah Undersecretary Walid al-Qudaimi warned of the impending danger facing Yemen over the ongoing smuggling of the material.

Houthis are actively enriching Thorium extracted from Yemeni mountains and sending it to Iran for arms manufacture.

Qudaimi said that a blast worse than the one that took place at Beirut port on August 4, due to the explosion of highly-flammable ammonium nitrate, was in store for Yemen if the smuggling does not stop.

He said that Iranian proxies in the region like the Lebanon-based Hezbollah, Houthis and the Iraq-based Popular Mobilization Forces have resorted to using certain vulnerable countries to manufacture and store explosives, chemicals and missiles. …

“When we talk about Yemen, the catastrophe is very big and worse than we might expect,” he said, adding that Houthis control the ports of Hodeidah and use them to smuggle weapons and explosive materials of all kinds.

Most of these weapons and explosives are sent by Iran to help Houthi militias control Yemen and threaten neighboring Gulf states, especially Saudi Arabia. They also use them to endanger maritime navigation in the Red Sea.

Qudaimi also tackled the FSO Safer oil tanker issue. Houthis have been obstructing efforts to perform maintenance work on board the derelict ship.

According to international reports, in the event of a leak or explosion in the floating reservoir, 1.1 million liters of crude oil will spill into the Red Sea.

This will cause serious damage to marine life, biodiversity and fish resources that cannot be compensated, in addition to the suspension of ports and international shipping lines in the region. https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/2450796/yemen-official-warns-blast-worse-beirut%E2%80%99s-over-houthi-smuggling-thorium-iran

August 17, 2020 Posted by | MIDDLE EAST, thorium | Leave a comment

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