Digests and Blog

The following are some of the key arms control dates and developments to watch over the next fortnight. For more news and analysis on these and other weapons-related security issues, consider subscribing to ACA's monthly journal Arms Control Today, which is available in print/digital and digital-only editions. - written and compiled by Tim Farnsworth June 23: OPCW Announces Last Consignment of Syria's Declared CW Stockpile Removed Today, OPCW Director-General Ahmet Üzümcü announced that the last of the remaining chemical weapons and precursors identified for removal from Syria were loaded…

Statement of Daryl G. Kimball, Executive Director, Arms Control AssociationTen months ago, the government of Bashar al-Assad launched a horrific Sarin gas attack that killed over 1,000 civilians on the outskirts of Damascus. The August 21 attack prompted the United States and Russia to strike an agreement that put into motion an expeditious plan for accounting, inspection, control, and elimination of Syria's deadly arsenal under the auspices of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). Today, OPCW Director-General Ahmet Üzümcü announced that the last of the remaining…

Hit or Miss, Sunday's Missile Defense Test Will Not Justify Expansion If the interceptor in Sunday's test hits, its test record would be one-for-three. Good for baseball, bad for stopping nukes. The United States has better alternatives. By Tom Z. Collina In 2004, President George W. Bush began fielding the Ground-Based Missile Defense (GMD) system that is in place today, composed of 30 interceptor missiles in Alaska and California, intended to counter a possible long-range missile attack from North Korea or Iran. Ten years later, it is all-too clear that the prototype system was rushed into…

The following are some of the key arms control dates and developments to watch over the next fortnight. For more news and analysis on these and other weapons-related security issues, consider subscribing to ACA's monthly journal Arms Control Today, which is available in print/digital and digital-only editions. - written and compiled by Tim Farnsworth June 9-10: Top U.S.-Iranian Officials Hold Bilateral Meeting on Nuclear Issue A senior team of senior U.S. diplomats lead by Deputy Secretary of State Bill Burns and Under Secretary of State Wendy Sherman will hold bilateral consultations with…

By Kelsey Davenport IAEA Deputy Director-General Tero Varjoranta (right) and Iran's ambassador to the IAEA, Reza Najafi, shake hands after a meeting in Tehran in February. (Photo Credit: AFP-Jiji) Iran is complying with the terms of an agreement made with P5+1 (United States, China, France, United Kingdom, Germany and Russia) on November 24, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) most recent quarterly report. The May 23 report confirms that Iran is continuing to implement its commitments under the November 2013 Joint Plan of Action. The actions that Iran has taken…

The following are some of the key arms control dates and developments to watch in the coming week. For more news and analysis on these and other weapons-related security issues, consider subscribing to ACA's monthly journal Arms Control Today, which is available in print/digital and digital-only editions. - written and compiled by Tim Farnsworth May-June: Syrian Chemical Weapons Removal As of today, most of Syria's chemical weapons have been removed from its borders. Only eight percent is still waiting to be removed. According to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW…

The House Made the Right Call to Support Annual Cost Estimates. By Tom Z. Collina The House just passed an amendment offered by Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) to the FY 2015 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to require annual updates to a December Congressional Budget Office (CBO) study on the cost of U.S. nuclear weapons. The CBO report estimated that maintaining and modernizing the U.S. nuclear arsenal would cost $355 billion over ten years. "There should be no objection from anyone about knowing how much the projects will cost," Blumenauer said on the House floor. "It will be…

The following are some of the key arms control dates and developments to watch in the coming week. For more news and analysis on these and other weapons-related security issues, consider subscribing to ACA's monthly journal Arms Control Today, which is available in print/digital and digital-only editions. - written and compiled by Tim Farnsworth May 19-23: IAEA May Release Report on Iran's Nuclear Program Later this week, the IAEA may release its latest report on the status of Iran's nuclear program for the IAEA Board of Governors, as well as its monthly report on the implementation of the…

By Daryl G. Kimball and Kelsey Davenport (updated 12:00 noon EST) Today in Vienna as P5+1 negotiators engage with their Iranian counterparts on each side's proposals for a "comprehensive solution that would ensure Iran's nuclear programme will be exclusively peaceful," it is clear that the two sides are still far apart on the pivotal issue of Iran's "practical needs" for uranium enrichment. Reuters is reporting that an unnamed Iranian official claims that: "We need at least 100,000 IR-1 (first generation) centrifuges to produce enough fuel for each of our (civilian) nuclear (power) plants."…

By Greg Thielmann (Image source: Globalzero.org) Comments by the former Director-General of the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission, Brig. Gen. Uzi Eilam, made big news in Israel on May 8 because they seriously challenge key elements of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's narrative concerning the Iranian nuclear threat. Excerpts from an Eilam interview appearing in Israel's largest circulation newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, included four critical assertions: The Iranian nuclear [weapons] program will only be operational in another 10 years. I'm not even sure that Iran would want the bomb. It…