On April 16th, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit southeast Iran causing tremors that could be felt in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, the UAE, and western Saudi Arabia. This is only a week after a worrying 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck Kaki, a southern Iranian town located just 60 miles from Iran's Bushehr nuclear power station.
Blog
Russian and U.S. strategic impasse
While most nuclear arms control attention will remain focused on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Preparatory Conference (PrepCom) in Geneva this week, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov is expected to meet on Tuesday with U.S. Defense Undersecretary James Miller in Brussels to discuss a related issue: missile defense.
Britain marks the death of a conviction politician
Margaret Thatcher died Monday, and on Wednesday Parliament is recalled for members to pay their respects. The funeral will be next Wednesday, 17th April, and will be a spectacle watched by millions. Thatcher left a lasting legacy that sent ripples way beyond the shores of Britain, not least in her approach to the Cold War at the time.
Iraq War anniversary and regional non-proliferation
Today marks the tenth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. On 19th March, 2003, U.S., U.K., Australian and Polish forces sent forces into Iraq on the grounds of ridding the country of—and preventing their further development of—weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
Conference in Oslo discusses Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons
On Monday and Tuesday this week, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is hosting officials from 132 countries and civil society representatives in Oslo to discuss the humanitarian, environmental, developmental and economic consequences of nuclear weapon detonation.
E3+3 (P5+1) meet tomorrow with Iran in Kazakhstan
The E3+3 (P5+1: United States, United Kingdom, France, China, Russia, and Germany) will meet with Iran on Tuesday for official talks in Almaty, Kazakhstan, the first formal meeting in eight months. These talks follow last week’s update report from the IAEA on Iran’s nuclear program, indicating that a new type of centrifuge was installed at Iran’s main uranium enrichment plant, Natanz, that could speed up the enrichment process, and increase the accumulation of 20 per cent low-enriched uranium.
NATO Defense Ministerial
NATO’s Defense Ministerial meeting is set to take place in Brussels Thursday and Friday this week. The anticipated drawdown of the International Security Assistance Force from Afghanistan in 2014 and the continued unrest in Syria and Mali are expected to dominate the agenda.
The State of the Union: Obama to announce further nuclear reductions?
President Obama will address the American public in his State of the Union address tomorrow. Last week U.S. Vice President Joe Biden spoke in Munich, suggesting that the President will address their shared interests in “advancing a comprehensive nuclear agenda to strengthen the non-proliferation regime, [and] reduce[d] global stockpiles of nuclear materials”.