Proposed Plan To Upgrade US Nuclear Arsenal Estimated At $963 Billion

The enormous cache of weapons amassed over the past 60 years is aging, and in 2012, President Obama proposed a plan which he said would cost $208 billion.

Jason Ditz
By Jason Ditz

US officials have been pushing for a massive, and massively expensive, modernization campaign for the US nuclear weapons arsenal. The enormous cache of weapons amassed over the past 60 years is aging, and in 2012, President Obama proposed a plan which he said would cost $208 billion. Which is a lot, but the Congressional Budget Office (CBO)

Read Full Article

Netanyahu Bluffed Attack On Iran To Influence US Elections

Netanyahu convinced the Americans that he was determined to attack Iran, which would have been a disaster for the U.S. But in fact the gambit was a bluff by Netanyahu with two dread aims.

Mondoweiss
By Mondoweiss

Shibley Telhami, at Reuters, says that the thing Israel hates about this deal, that it is focused on Iran’s nuclear weapons and not on regime change or its regional actions, is something that Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu himself effected. In 2011-2012, Netanyahu convinced the Americans that he was determined to attack Iran, which would have been a

Read Full Article

ANALYSIS: America’s New Deal With Iran May Leave Russia Out In The Cold

The implications of the recent Iranian nuclear deal extend far beyond centrifuges and uranium enrichment. Russia, which has long played tensions between Tehran and Washington to its own ends, may know this better than anyone.

Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya
By Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya
Russian President Vladimir Putin walks with President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Hassan Ruhani, left, in Ufa, Russia, Thursday, July 9, 2015.

MONTREAL --- Tehran and Washington have both been constrained by their own post-1979 rhetoric about one another. Even after a final nuclear deal was signed in Geneva on Tuesday, officials in Tehran and Washington say they are not normalizing ties. Generally, however, both sides have long wanted to improve relations without making any concessions,

Read Full Article

Netanyahu Has A Twitter Meltdown Over Iran Nuclear Deal

Despite approval by global nuclear experts, Netanyahu continues to sing the same old tune about the Iran deal, 140 characters at a time.

Kit O'Connell
By Kit O'Connell
Benjamin Netanyahu walks out following a press conference at his Jerusalem office

WASHINGTON --- As Washington and Iran celebrated a nuclear deal that many see as a historic step forward for relations between both countries, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took to social media to repeat what’s becoming an increasingly tired refrain: that peace with Iran spells impending doom for Israel and will lead to widespread

Read Full Article

Prospects Of Iran Nuclear Deal Grow Amid Reports Of Progress

Kerry has confirmed that most issues have been resolved.

Jason Ditz
By Jason Ditz

While officials are remaining typically tight-lipped on exactly where the Iranian nuclear talks stand, the latest reports out of Vienna suggest significant progress over the last few days, with growing expectations that a deal, at least a provisional one, could be finalized by Monday. Secretary of State John Kerry confirmed that some of the

Read Full Article

US Presses Israel On talks For Middle East Nuclear-Free Zone

Israel has never publicly declared what is widely considered to be an extensive nuclear weapons program.

Associated Press
By Associated Press

Israel's Sorek nuclear reactor center near the central Israeli town of Yavne. UNITED NATIONS — The United States has sent a top official to Israel in an effort to revive talks on a Middle East zone free of nuclear weapons, a central issue of a nuclear treaty review conference that some fear will end Friday without progress on global

Read Full Article