Tasnim: Iran begins considering withdrawal from NPT

Pic.: Tasnim

Reports indicate that the issue of withdrawal from the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) has been placed on Iran's agenda, Tasnim agency reports.

A number of relevant bodies in Iran, including the Parliament, are urgently reviewing the issue of withdrawal from the NPT. It is reportedly becoming firmly established in Iran that there is no justification for remaining in the NPT.

According to the NPT, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) must provide conditions for the protection and support of Iran's access to peaceful nuclear technology and its equipment. However, when IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi implicitly encourages the enemy to use nuclear weapons against Iranian facilities, and the US-Israeli enemy attacks Iranian facilities without any hindrance or condemnation from the IAEA, there remains no justification for Iran to stay in the NPT.

Exiting the NPT does not mean moving towards nuclear weapons; rather, it is about preventing the continuation of spying by the United States and the Israeli regime under the guise of IAEA inspectors.

Bloomberg: The war with Iran may be ushering in a New Nuclear Age

Donald Trump’s willingness to attack adversaries while rattling allies is threatening to push the world into a new nuclear age, Bloomberg writes.

From the North Atlantic to the West Pacific, governments are debating more publicly than before whether they, too, must get the bomb. Germany and Poland, who have long been satisfied to sit under the US nuclear umbrella, have in the wake of Trump’s musings about taking Greenland welcomed French overtures about extending the country’s own strategic deterrent across the continent.

China and Russia, both longstanding members of the exclusive club of nuclear-armed nations, have raised alarm about the risk of weapons proliferation in Japan and South Korea, even as they upgrade their own arsenals. The US, the only country to use a nuclear weapon against a civilian population, is assessing a return to atomic bomb tests to comply with an executive order by Trump after a hiatus of more than three decades.

During the same week that the US president issued an ultimatum to Iran’s leadership to surrender its nuclear program, his administration was circulating a report giving its regional rival, Saudi Arabia, potential access to uranium-enrichment and -reprocessing technology, according to documents seen by Bloomberg. One diplomat from a European state said the need for the continent to develop its own nuclear capabilities was an active discussion across its capitals.

In January, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists advanced its “Doomsday Clock” to 85 seconds to midnight – the closest to catastrophe it’s been. They cited among other things Trump’s attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities and his efforts to build his “Golden Dome” missile shield, as well as the expiration of the last arms control treaty between the US and Russia.

“The possible acquisition of such weapons of mass destruction is openly discussed, even in countries that have pledged never to possess them,” Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said in an interview. “But more nuclear weapons in more countries will not make the world more secure — on the contrary.

While only nine nations are currently considered nuclear-armed states, more than 20 others have energy programs, industrial bases and engineering expertise that could allow them to begin climbing the ladder to the bomb. It takes just 25 kilograms (55 pounds) of highly enriched uranium or 8 kilograms of plutonium to make a weapon capable of destroying a small city.

The scramble is fueled by the belief that forgoing nuclear weapons leaves nations exposed, with Libya, Ukraine and now Iran underscoring the consequences. While possessing a nuclear arsenal is no guarantee against attack, they do raise the stakes of one.

The more nations that get the bomb, the harder it is for big powers to control how it’s used, and the more dangerous the world becomes. Last year, India and Pakistan exchanged airstrikes in the latest flare-up between the two neighbors, which both acquired nuclear weapons in the 1990s.

Non-proliferation experts warn that the arms control system painstakingly built through the Cold War could soon unravel.

In addition to the destruction of economic ties and the energy crisis, the problem of non-proliferation of nuclear weapons will become the most destructive factor in the modern world order.

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