At an informal briefing today, journalists were informed by senior government officials that the \’Initial Gate\’ decision involving the replacement of Trident, the United Kingdom\’s nuclear weapons system, will be delayed until after the NPT Review Conference next year. Paul Ingram, Executive Director of BASIC commented:
Programmes
Majority of UK voters now against Trident replacement
I have no doubt that the latest opinion poll published this evening by the Guardian reflects the significant media coverage that Trident replacement has seen recently, as well as the cracking of the ranks at the very top of all three principal parties around replacement. This is very encouraging for those looking for public interest in the recent discussions over moves towards a world free of nuclear weapons:
Britain ready to put Trident on the table
PM announcement at G8 Summit
Gordon Brown announced today in Italy at the G8 Summit his willingness to put Britain\’s nuclear arsenal on the table in negotiations at Obama\’s nuclear summit next March. Paul Ingram, BASIC\’s Executive Director said: “This very concrete offer from the UK is clearly designed to create a spirit of multilateral cooperation between the nuclear weapon states in advance of the NPT Review Conference. It is to be strongly welcomed and we hope that other nuclear weapon states can respond accordingly.”
START follow-on: Reductions – not radical optimists – can focus on limits
In conjunction with the Obama-Medvedev Summit in Moscow today, the United States and Russia reached a Joint Understanding (White House press release) for establishing new limitations on the number of strategic nuclear warheads and delivery vehicles under the START Follow-on Treaty.
START follow-on negotiations: Russians focus on delivery vehicles
An announcement on the US/Russian negotiations is expected at July's summit between Obama and Medvedev.
Iran update: number 135
Summary
- IAEA reports no change
- Obama holds out a diplomatic hand to Iran
- Iranian Presidential elections on June 12 – result in the balance
- Sarkozy meets with Iran's foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki
- Gates confirms Iran launch of Sejil-2 missile
- Israelis accuse Bolivia and Venezuela of supplying Iran with uranium
- Ahmadinejad denies collaboration with North Korea
- US House and Senate discuss deepening sanctions
- New Israel-US working group on Iran's nuclear program
Political developments around nuclear weapons and the “butterfly effect”
During the past month or two, getting to zero has seemed to resemble the early phase of the butterfly effect of Chaos Theory. The thinking goes as follows: the movement of air caused by a butterfly flapping his wings could contribute to the formation of a hurricane, or other major weather event. Without that one extra factor of the flapping of the butterfly's wings, the event may not have occurred. Of course, the flapping of a butterfly's wings alone cannot cause a weather event.