Iran
Israel urges visiting Russian president to pressure Iran on nuclear program
Associated Press – June 25, 2012
Israel urged the visiting Russian president on Monday to step up pressure on Iran to curb its suspect nuclear program but there was no sign of any concessions from Vladimir Putin. With Russia an influential voice in the international debate over Iran, the outcome of the 24-hour visit could have deep implications for whether Israel decides to strike Tehran’s nuclear facilities or give the international community more time to find a diplomatic solution to the standoff.
Iran: Crisis-hit EU must rethink Iran oil embargo
Menelaos Hadjicostis, Associated Press – June 25, 2012
The European Union’s embargo on Iranian oil sales is “on the wrong track” and won’t help end a dispute over Tehran’s nuclear program, Iran’s foreign minister declared Tuesday, warning the EU to avoid actions that may jeopardize fuel supplies to its crisis-hit nations.
North Korea
N. Korea vows to boost nuclear deterrent
Agence France-Presse – June 25, 2012
North Korea on Sunday denounced US-South Korean military drills near the tense border as a “provocation” and vowed to “further bolster up its nuclear deterrent”, state media reported.”The DPRK (North Korea) will further bolster up its nuclear deterrent for self-defence as long as the US, the world’s biggest nuclear weapons state, persists in its hostile policy towards the DPRK,” it said.
Iran and North Korea
Op-Ed: Living With Nuclear Outliers
Robert S. Litwak, New York Times – June 25, 2012
To President George W. Bush, North Korea and Iran were “rogue states,” suggesting that their regimes were irredeemable. President Obama changed that to “outliers,” a label that implied the path was open for Pyongyang and Tehran to rejoin the community of nations if they complied with the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Their choice was integration or isolation.
United Kingdom
MP launches campaign to keep Wales weapon-free
South Wales Evening Post – June 22, 2012
Some lawmakers in Wales are supporting a motion rebuking the Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones for suggesting the nuclear deterrent would be “more than welcome” in Wales if the Scottish Government wanted rid of it. The motion states that the MPs do “not support the comments of the First Minister of Wales that there would be a welcome for housing the UK submarine fleet in Milford Haven”. It goes on to claim that the “number of potential jobs created would be far smaller than that suggested” and; expresses concern about the “safety considerations of a nuclear fleet in close proximity to Milford Haven.
Congress
Senate panel briefed on nuclear treaty
Walter Pincus, Washington Post – June 25, 2012
Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, notification from the Russian government comes into the U.S. Nuclear Risk Reduction Center located at the State Department. Word arrives of any change for each of Moscow’s nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles, each land- and sub-based launcher, or each strategic bomber. Since the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) began on Feb. 5, 2011, “we have exchanged over 2,500 [such] notifications,” Rose Gottemoeller, acting undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday.
