President Obama complimented Ukraine on the complete removal of highly enriched uranium from its territory. At the recent Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul, South Korea, Obama stated that Ukraine’s full removal of the highly enriched uranium indicated the country’s “continuing courageous leadership on nuclear security”, according to the White House Press Secretary.

The two leaders agreed that Ukraine made an important contribution for securing all vulnerable nuclear materials. On March 27 the United States announced the removal of remaining 128 kilograms (over 280 pounds) of highly enriched uranium (HEU) from Ukraine. The shipments were completed as part of a joint effort of the two countries.

At the 2010 Nuclear Security Summit the Presidents Obama and Yanukovych made commitments to remove all of HEU from Ukraine by the 2012 Nuclear Security Summit. Suffice it to say that back in 2010 both Chile and Mexico decided to follow Ukraine’s initiative to get rid of its stock of enriched nuclear materials.

In order to implement the Joint Statement by Presidents Obama and Yanukovych of April 2010 a total of six secure operations had to be conducted. The operations were made possible through cooperation between the U.S., Ukraine, Russia and the IAEA. The joint efforts resulted in the successful removal of a total of 234 kilograms over a two-year period.

Originally, there were three sites in Ukraine bearing different quantities and types of HEU. The first batch (56 kilograms of spent HEU fuel) was shipped from the Kyiv Institute of Nuclear Research in May 2010, according to the fact sheet released by the White House Press Secretary.

This was followed by three shipments in late December 2010: 16 kilograms of fresh HEU from the Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology, 25 kilograms of fresh HEU from Sevastopol University, and 10 kilograms of fresh HEU from the Kyiv Institute of Nuclear Research. The HEU was transported to Russia, the country of its origin, where it will be converted into low enriched uranium, which cannot be used to make a nuclear weapon.

In December 1994 Ukraine joined the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and proclaimed its non-nuclear status. Ukraine reaffirmed its non-nuclear status in its Constitution and the declaration “On the State Sovereignty of Ukraine”.

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Amid growing deficits of food supplies in North Korea, which is under new leadership, the country recently elected for a new and surprising turn of diplomacy toward the United States. As previously reported by Toonari Post, the North Korean leaders has agreed to halt nuclear enrichment and missile tests in exchange for food.

According to the agreement, which was finalized in Beijing, North Korea will suspend nuclear weapons tests, enrichment of uranium, missile launches, and allow inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency to inspect Yongbyon nuclear reactor.

This rebirth of diplomacy between the United States and North Korea took place at a time when North Korea has been under the tight grip of dwindling food supplies. North Korea is evidently attempting to mend the nation’s food supply gaps with this nuclear deal. In return, the otherwise closed and secretive country will receive 240,000 tons of food supplies, an agreement that was in the pipeline since the last days of their late “Dear Leader”.

There had been a long standing promise that the year 2012 would mark the dawn of a new era and prosperity, according to reports by British paper The Guardian.

Admiral Robert Willard Commander of the US Pacific Fleet told the senate committee soon after North Korean announcement its diplomatic intentions that preconditions for food assistance “now include discussions of cessation of nuclearisation and ballistic missile testing and the allowance of IAEA perhaps back into Yongbyon [reactor].”

The most eligible aspect of this agreement is that North Korea has agreed to allow inspectors from IAEA inside their borders, after years of resistance where inspectors were expelled, negotiations around the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 2003 was abandoned and nuclear devices tested in 2006 and 2009.

Over the last decade, diplomatic relations especially with the US were badly affected due to rigid behavior and continued arrogance over development of nuclear weapons, perhaps leading to the food crisis that blew out of proportion when the nation’s economic isolation intensified.

Bijaya Rajbhandari, UNICEF’s representative in North Korea, said in a statement a few months back, “If the funding does not arrive, and we are unable to keep our nutrition program to treat those children who are severely malnourished, these children will suffer irreversible consequences on their growth and development capacity.”

UNICEF’s spokesman, Chris Tidey, have told Reuters that “one in five children in North Korea under the age of five suffers from moderate malnutrition, which can cause stunting and also hamper their cognitive development.” The North Korean food crisis multiplied at its current speed due to the turnaround in policy by South Korea and the US, which ended the food supplies to North Korea in 2008.

Newly enthroned Kim Jong-un seems to have taken a step forward in fulfilling the promise of prosperity and dawn of a new era in North Korea, keeping aside political and diplomatic arrogance for now.

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AJC expressed grave concern about India’s relations with Iran. In a letter to the Indian ambassador to the United States, AJC stressed that any effort by India to intensify its commercial activity with Iran could undermine the U.S. and EU sanctions that aim to stop Iran’s nuclear-weapons program.

“We are alarmed and dismayed by this apparent move to elevate commercial interests over vital security concerns,” wrote AJC President Robert Elman and Executive Director David Harris in a letter to Ambassador Nirupama Rao.

The full text of the letter to Ambassador Rao follows:

Her Excellency Nirupama Rao
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
Embassy of India
2107 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20008

Dear Ambassador Rao:

As you are aware, AJC has been a long-time friend of India and an advocate of increasingly close cooperation between Washington and New Delhi.

In that spirit, we were deeply troubled by recent news reports of Indian efforts to intensify trade relations with Iran at the very moment that Washington and fellow democracies are applying new economic pressures in the banking and energy sectors to persuade Tehran to halt its pursuit of nuclear-weapons capability.

We were particularly struck by the announcement this week, by Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar, that “a huge delegation” of Indian business representatives would soon travel to Iran to capitalize on opportunities created by European withdrawal from the Iranian market.

This suggests that New Delhi is attempting to take advantage of sanctions adopted by like-minded nations for the explicit purpose of preventing nuclear proliferation by a dangerously aggressive regime — and which could, in turn, trigger an escalating arms race — in a highly volatile region.

In light of India’s history of support for International Atomic Energy Agency resolutions on Iranian transgressions, and repeated expressions of Indian Government concern about Iran’s nuclear ambitions, we are alarmed and dismayed by this apparent move to elevate commercial interests over vital security concerns.

India has asserted that it will only abide by UN Security Council restrictions on trade with Iran, but not go beyond. Yet, as in the recent case of Syria, further measures are today impossible because of a threatened veto by one or two permanent members. We fear that India risks not only the erosion of the latest steps laudably adopted in Washington, Brussels and elsewhere, but also its standing as an admired partner in safeguarding regional and global security.

We thank you for conveying AJC’s concerns on this urgent matter to your Government, and look forward to the prospect of discussing it with you at your earliest convenience.

With the assurance of our profound esteem and best wishes, we remain,

Respectfully,
Robert Elman, President
David Harris, Executive Director

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It is natural for certain nations to display its military might or capacity to retaliate when facing, or believing itself to be facing, opponents. So is the relations between Iran and the US; no formal diplomatic relations exists between the two governments but continuous animosity towards the opposing power’s military advancement has fraught the informal relation.

Recently, there has been a war of words and perilous threats between these countries amid increasing threat launched by international community to wage an economic war against Iran. Iranian officials warned that in the wake of further sanctions, it will close down the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow but strategic waterway near Iran.

Iran threw more fuel on the fire when it successfully test-fired a long range missile during a naval exercise on December 24. The very public 10-day naval exercise in the Strait of Hormuz was named “Velayat90”. There has been intensified ambiguity over Iran’s intentions of developing nuclear technology in the past several years, and when the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) recently presented a report, it strengthened the case against Iran regarding those intentions.

For a long time, this subject has been a matter of disengagement between Iran, IAEA and the international community at large and damaged the composure and compassion among the parties involved.

Economic Warfare

Economic sanctions should be considered a new type of ammunition today; at the outset of broken diplomacy and strained relations, it has been increasingly significant to rely on a blow to trade and financial markets to cause economic devastation in the enemy country.

In this case, diplomatic relations between US and Iran has been suspended for the last 3 decades but during the recent Bush administration, US exports took a hike from $8.3M in 2001 to $683.2M by 2008. US Census Bureau showed that this figure fell by 50% after President Barack Obama came to office.

Meanwhile, the United Nations ratified at least four rounds of sanctions during the period of four years from 2006 to 2010 in reaction to Iran’s failure to stop uranium enrichment and cooperate with IAEA. And the EU has put in place restrictions on trade and assets and imposed a ban on export to Iran of key technology equipment.

On the surface, it looks feasible to say that sanctions will have a ravaging impact similar to that of military action, since economic war will slowly ruin the internal markets of the country and its ability to compete internationally.

However, Iran seems to persist in keeping up appearance, recently wrapping up ten days of naval drill near the Strait, which showed off helicopters, missile-launching frigates, hovercraft and submarines. The drill was in a 2000 KM stretch of water beyond the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of Persian Gulf and as well as in some parts of Indian Ocean.

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Israeli president Shimon Peres recently claimed an attack on Iran is closer than ever, and poses the ”biggest threat” to the world right now. A leak alleges Israeli PM Netanyahu will be carrying out an airstrike upon Iranian nuclear facilities’ suspected of developing weapons of war. Netanyahu’s advisors have not denied these allegations, and members of his administration have undergone polygraphs to help determine the source of the leak.

This would not be the first Israeli preemptive strike of this sort. The bombing of Osirak, Iraq in 1981, (condemned by Reagan) and North-Korean influenced Syrian reactors in 2007 (Operation Orchard) were made against countries accused of developing nuclear arms, and without American approval per the memoirs of George W. Bush.

As further forewarning of imminent conflict, Israel has test-launched their Jericho 3 missiles west over the Mediterranean during training exercises. The weapon has been unseen since the only known test in 2008, and capable of traveling 4,000-10,000km with the ability to carry nuclear warheads. Joint exercises with the Italian air force at the Sardinian NATO base and evacuation practices in Tel Aviv may give further credence to a strike, or a simple flaunting of Israeli military might to rogue Iran.

Israel, the US, and the UK allege Iran of satellite images harboring steel containers related to nuclear arms, and computer models simulating nuclear weaponry. The UN and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have inspected Iran’s radioactive material in the past, accusing Iran of enriching uranium in centrifuges. IAEA is expected to provide a report November 8 detailing what programs are being studied.

In Iranian defense, President Ahmadinejad claims its nuclear engineering is only intended for peaceful practice to better the lives of citizens, alleging the West of disabling their nuclear reactors with a computer virus and assassinations of their scientists. He blames Washington for creating conspiracies to discredit Iran and cause strife with the Saudis complicit with the West.

“The U.S. fears Iran’s capability,” he told Egyptian daily al-Akhbar, “Iran will not permit (anyone from making) a move against it.” He further makes the allegation that Israel owns over 300 nuclear weapons and admits imposed US financial sanctions have affected the Iranian banking sector.

It is unclear what reaction the US would take on an Israeli attack. An American strike on Iran was planned in 2004; the House passed resolution 398, “to use all appropriate means to deter, dissuade, and prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.” The plan fell apart in the Senate, and nearly created a campaign simultaneous of Bush’s invasion of Iraq.

Zbiegnew Brezinski claims an Israeli airstrike would lead the US into the war regardless, as they would be an accessory in allowing Israel to fly over restricted airspace above Iraq, and controlled by US air force.

“This would ignite war in Iraq, make Afghanistan even more impossible, and quadruple oil prices. Europe would become even more dependent on Russia for energy, and even conflict with Russia and China, who deals with Iran over oil,” said the former advisor to Jimmy Carter.

Eldad Pardo of the Hebrew University claims Europe, the USA, the Arab world and China would all respond to nuclear threat. Meanwhile, the French foreign minister thinks an attack would destabilize the region.

Israel has been accused by the UN of producing illegal white phosphorous, and failing to declare chemical and biological warfare capabilities. Israel is not recognized as a Nuclear Weapons State by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, although is known to own them. The 16 clerics presiding over Ahmadinejad claim Israel does not have the right to exist on a political map.

This may be the most dangerous conflict in the world right now.

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