Iran
Best Course for Iranian Nuclear Talks: Take it Slow, Experts Say
Roy Gutman, McClatchy Newspapers – April 22, 2012
After 15 months of rising tensions and fears of military confrontation, the foreign policy chief of the European Union sat down for dinner April 13 with the personal representative of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, at the Iranian consulate, not far from Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar.
Netanyahu Warns of Islamist, Nuclear “Marriage,” Welt Reports
Niklas Magnusson, Bloomberg – April 22, 2012
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the greatest threat to world peace is “the marriage of a militant Islamist regime with nuclear weapons,” including Iran developing the bomb or the Taliban seizing power in Pakistan, Welt am Sonntag reported
Military Chief: Israel Increases Covert Options
Associated Press – April 22, 2012
Israel’s military chief of staff says he has ordered his forces to step up covert operations in enemy countries.
Ex-National Security Adviser: No Apologies to Israel Over Iran’s Nuke Program
Ben Birnbaum, Washington Times – April 20, 2012
President Obama’s former national security adviser says the U.S. has no reason to apologize to Israel for its handling of Iran and notes that the U.S. has been able to “contain” other nations that have acquired nuclear weapons.
Iran’s Parchin Complex: Why Are Nuclear Inspectors So Focused on it?
Scott Peterson, Christian Science Monitor – April 20, 2012
Parchin. In the annals of Iran’s controversial nuclear program, the sprawling military base southeast of Tehran may hold clues to past weapons-related work – or it may not.
U.S.
Nuclear Weapon Reductions Must Be Part of Strategic Analysis
Henry Kissinger and Brent Scowcroft, Washington Post – April 22, 2012
A New START treaty reestablishing the process of nuclear arms control has recently taken effect. Combined with reductions in the U.S. defense budget, this will bring the number of nuclear weapons in the United States to the lowest overall level since the 1950s. The Obama administration is said to be considering negotiations for a new round of nuclear reductions to bring about ceilings as low as 300 warheads. Before momentum builds on that basis, we feel obliged to stress our conviction that the goal of future negotiations should be strategic stability and that lower numbers of weapons should be a consequence of strategic analysis, not an abstract preconceived determination.
Reports Cast Doubt on European Missile Defense
Desmond Butler, Associated Press – April 21, 2012
Major delays, cost overruns and critical technological problems are plaguing a missile defense system designed to protect the United States and Europe from an Iranian attack, Pentagon advisers and government investigators say about one of President Barack Obama’s top military programs.
Restore Commitment to Nuclear Modernization
Senators Kyl, Corker, and Ayotte, Politico – April 22, 2012
President Barack Obama’s fiscal year 2013 budget request to modernize our nation’s aging nuclear weapons and laboratories falls about $370 million short of what the Senate deemed necessary when it supported the 2010 New START treaty.
New Evidence for the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty
Hazel O’Leary, U-T San Diego – April 19, 2012
More than 50 world leaders met recently in South Korea to address the challenges posed by the buildup and spread of nuclear weapons. As President Barack Obama noted, success depends on a multilayered strategy, including implementation of a global, verifiable treaty banning nuclear weapons testing.
India
An Arms Race at Arm’s Length
Daniel Politi, New York Times – April 20, 2012
As India celebrated on Thursday the successful launching of Agni V, a long-range ballistic missile capable of reaching Beijing and carrying a nuclear weapon, much of the world yawned. Is it ignoring a growing arms race in Asia at its peril?
Korean Peninsula
N.Korea Warns of “Special Actions” Soon
Associated Press – April 23, 2012
North Korea’s military vowed Monday to launch unspecified “special actions” soon meant to reduce South Korea’s conservative government and media companies “to ashes” in less that four minutes, the an escalation of its recent threats.
