The U.S. Congress is poised to consider an Iran sanctions bill this week that may shut down any transactions with the Iranian oil industry and tighten financial loopholes as part of tough international moves aimed at pressuring Tehran to curb its nuclear program.
Time for Progress on Iran Talks
The talks between the big powers and Iran resume in Moscow today, two weeks before the additional European sanctions against Tehran’s oil and banking sectors are fully implemented.
Threat of Sequestration
The House of Representatives resumes debate tomorrow on the energy and water appropriations bill which covers nuclear weapons and the non-proliferation program of the National Nuclear Security Administration.
C-SPAN coverage of NATO Shadow Summit
C-SPAN covered the first afternoon of the two-day NATO Shadow Summit in Washington on May 14 and 15, bringing civil society into the conversation a week ahead of the NATO summit in Chicago. The C-SPAN introduction to the event is here:
Nuclear weapons budget battles
Knives are out in the initial skirmishes over the fiscal 2013 funding for the nuclear weapons complex in the U.S., as a key appropriations committee meets this week.
Changing the narrative on U.S. tactical nuclear weapons in Europe
A couple of events in Washington this week arising from a new report will focus attention anew on the presence of U.S. tactical nuclear weapons in Europe, as NATO foreign and defence ministers prepare to meet in Brussels on Wednesday and Thursday ahead of next month’s NATO summit.
With much at stake, GCC wants to participate in Iran negotiations
The Middle East has been left out of the P5+1's negotiations with Iran, and the GCC states want in. At a conference on nuclear non-proliferation in the Gulf, participants raised concerns of double standards for Iran and Israel. Gulf states view military action against Iran as a last resort, but also see the Iranian threat as a global one. Anne Penketh reports.
Hopes rising for Mideast WMD meeting
Amid rising optimism about the prospects for convening a 2012 conference on establishing a zone free of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in the Middle East, Finnish diplomat Jaakko Laajava is to deliver his first briefing to states-parties to the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) in Vienna next month on his efforts to pull the meeting together. Anne Penketh reports on where things stand in the April edition of Arms Control Today.