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A United Nations-backed panel has publicly released a draft treaty banning the possession and use of all nuclear weapons. The draft treaty is the culmination of a sustained campaign, supported by more than 130 non-nuclear states frustrated with the sclerotic pace of disarmament, to prohibit nuclear weapons and persuade nuclear-armed states to disarm. Nine countries are known or believed to possess nuclear weapons: the US, UK, Russia, China, France, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel. None has supported the draft plan. The draft treaty obliges state parties to “never under any circumstances … develop, produce, manufacture, otherwise acquire, possess or...

“There will be no separate peace between Israel and the Arab world – I want to make that clear to all of you,” Kerry lectured, “without the Palestinian process and without Palestinian peace.” Perhaps the esteemed diplomat forgot that Israel already signed peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, two moderate Arab countries that enjoy normalized relations with the Jewish state despite the absence of an Israeli-Palestinian deal. And Kerry may have missed that under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, there have been numerous reports of security cooperation between Israel and Sunni Arab states like Saudi Arabia that are deeply concerned by...

President Barack Obama hailed the nuclear deal with Iran on Friday as a “substantial success” and a model for future diplomacy, as world leaders took stock of the world’s most worrisome nuclear threats. Hosting his last nuclear security summit, Obama sought to use the controversial Iran deal as an argument for his carrot-and-stick approach to deterring nuclear proliferation, and he credited Iran with taking steps to meet its commitments. Critics of the deal in the U.S. and abroad are livid about the sanctions relief Iran is receiving in response. “It will take time for Iran to reintegrate in the global...

Iranian leaders view the nuclear deal signed by western powers as a “surrender” to Iran, and as cementing the Islamic Republic’s status as a “superpower.” An analysis by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) has shed light on the sense of victory held by Iran’s most senior leadership, as neighboring countries prepare for a surge in terrorism sponsored by an emboldened Tehran. Among the comments translated by MEMRI was a statement made by Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan at an armed forces general command ceremony on August 30, in which he boasted that Iran had forced the “surrender” of...

Washington (CNN) - Texas Sen. Ted Cruz tried out his best Tony Montana impersonation this week in an effort to illustrate his staunch rejection of the Iran nuclear deal. Speaking to a full room in Houston, Cruz spent much of Tuesday afternoon berating the deal; comparing its element of Iranian inspection to a self-inspecting, fictional, drug kingpin. "Have any of y'all seen the movie 'Scarface?'" Cruz asked. "This is the equivalent of law enforcement picking up the phone and calling Tony Montana and saying, 'Hey Tony, you got any drugs?' 'I don't got no drugs.' 'Thank you, Tony.' That is...

Western sources have reportedly revealed that US Secretary of State John Kerry is offering Gulf States an American nuclear umbrella to deal with the Iranian nuclear threat, as Kerry is finalizing a controversial deal with Iran ahead of a March 31 deadline for talks. The sources spoke to the London-based Arabic language Al-Hayat newspaper, as cited by Yedioth Aharonoth, and said that Kerry while in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, this week intends to present a plan to senior sources in the country. Through the framework of the plan, the US would provide a sort of nuclear umbrella to the Gulf States...

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “in a state of shocked disbelief” at the deal apparently taking shape in Geneva over Iran’s nuclear program, Israeli television news reports said Friday night. Netanyahu, the reports on Israel’s Channel 10 and Channel 2 news said, had “an unprecedented confrontation” with US Secretary of State John Kerry in Tel Aviv on Friday morning over the possible deal, which he publicly described as “a very, very bad deal” and which he implored Kerry “not to rush to sign” and to “reconsider.” The Netanyahu government is “in a crisis of faith” with the Obama administration...

Iran successfully has built a nuclear bomb with the help of Russia and North Korea and has enough weapons-grade uranium and plutonium for more, according to a source in the Revolutionary Guards intelligence unit. The source, who has access to Iran’s nuclear program, said the Islamic regime is working out of seven nuclear sites, most unknown to the IAEA, and that its nuclear bomb program is complete. North Korea has provided the regime with plutonium for nuclear warheads, the source verified, and the last obstacle to overcome is arming missiles with those warheads. …

Hamas has set the destruction of Israel as its goal. Between September 2000 and April 2004, Hamas perpetrated 425 terrorist attacks against Israel and murdered 377 Israelis - nine every month. Hamas was founded by Islamic militant extremists in the Gaza Strip in 1988, shortly after the first intifada broke out. The word Hamas is an acronym for the Arabic words for "Islamic Resistance Movement." Though it is also involved in social and welfare programs, the organization is devoted chiefly to the obliteration of Israel. Its charter states, "Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate...

Iran’s nuclear reactor at Bushehr was shut down for fear of an explosion. Saturday Dec. 1, an authoritative Russian nuclear industry source revealed the cause of its malfunction: “Indicators showed that some small external parts were… in the [Bushehr] reactor vessel….” They were identified as “bolts beneath the fuel cells.” Moscow sources report this information came from a source in the office of Sergei Kiriyenko, head of the Russian nuclear energy authority Rosatom, which supervised the construction of Iran’s first atomic reactor at Bushehr. According to our intelligence sources, Russian scientists and engineers were rushed from Moscow to Bushehr when...

For more than 60 years, nuclear-armed fighters have been a key part of the US deterrence calculus, particularly in Europe. Indeed, providing the umbrella of "extended deterrence" to NATO nations has been a mission performed by generations of USAF air crews, maintainers, and security forces. It now appears that, before long, the iconic nuclear fighter role, performed in recent years by the F-15E and F-16, will pass to a new heavyweight—the F-35 Lightning II. As the Obama Administration sees it, nuclear weapons delivered by fighters will continue to play an important role in the nation’s international affairs. The 2010 Nuclear...

/begin my translation<N. Korea: S. Korea is under N. Korean Nuclear Umbrella>Yonhap News 05/06/05Choi Sun-yong(Seoul: Yonhap News)  The National Peace and Unification Committee(Jo-pyong-tong) of N. Korea, while assailing remarks of Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon regarding N. Korean nuclear problem during his press conference today, drew attention by proclaiming that S. Korea is now benefiting from 'N. Korean nuclear umbrella.'Jo-pyong-tong claimed that it is true that S. Korea is benefiting from N. Korean nuclear deterrence, adding, "With S. Korea benefiting from our Military First Policy and nuclear umbrella, it should be condemning U.S. for blaming  Korean people for the horrors of war." Their claim of benefiting from their...

<p>SEOUL — The United States is committed to defending South Korea from an attack by the North and would use nuclear forces if needed, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told the government here yesterday.</p> <p>Mr. Rumsfeld, who finishes his first official visit to Asia today, said the U.S. commitment to South Korea includes "the continued provision of a nuclear umbrella" for South Korea, according to a statement issued after joint security talks.</p>