Iran Begins Exporting Excess Heavy Water to Comply With Nuclear Deal
Deutsche Welle
Iran has started to send heavy water to Oman to comply with the terms of its international nuclear deal. It was the second time Tehran had surpassed the 130-metric-ton threshold for heavy water. Iran's ISNA news agency and two diplomats familiar with Iran's nuclear program reported that by Monday the country had transferred an amount of its surplus heavy water to its Gulf neighbor Oman for sale.
Obama Seeks to Fortify Iran Nuclear Deal
Carol E. Lee and Jay Solomon | Wall Street Journal
The Obama administration is considering new measures in its final months in office to strengthen the landmark nuclear agreement with Iran, senior U.S. officials said, with President-elect Donald Trump’s first appointments foreshadowing an increasingly rocky road for the controversial deal.
U.S. House Votes to Stop Sales of Boeing Jetliners to Iran
Laura Litvan | Bloomberg
The House voted Thursday to effectively block Boeing Co. from selling or leasing jetliners to Iran, reflecting broad Republican opposition to the Obama administration’s Iran nuclear deal that allows the transaction involving 109 aircraft worth as much as $25 billion. The 243-174 vote was largely along party lines and comes despite a White House veto threat. The measure would prevent the Treasury Department from authorizing U.S. bank transactions for sales of aircraft to Iran and would bar the U.S. Export-Import Bank from financing any exports to that country.
Tsunami Hits Japan After Strong Quake Near Fukushima Disaster Site
Yuka Obayashi and Elaine Lies | Reuters
A powerful earthquake rocked northern Japan early on Tuesday, briefly disrupting cooling functions at a nuclear plant and generating a small tsunami that hit the same Fukushima region devastated by a 2011 quake, tsunami and nuclear disaster. The magnitude 7.4 earthquake, which was felt in Tokyo, sent thousands of residents fleeing for higher ground as dawn broke along the northeastern coast.
Obama, Xi Reaffirms Commitment to Nuclear-Free Korean Peninsula in Last Summit
Korea Times
U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping reaffirmed their commitment to a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula as they held their last meeting on the sidelines of a regional summit, the White House said. The bilateral meeting took place in Lima, Peru, on the margins of the annual summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum Saturday. It was Obama's last meeting with Xi before he leaves office in January.
Trump and the Bomb
Michael Krepon | Foreign Affairs
When U.S. President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January, he will face a global nuclear order that is increasingly unstable. North Korea, deteriorating U.S.–Russian relations, and the triangular competition among India, Pakistan, and China are all cause for concern. Add in Beijing’s growing ambitions to control resources and sea-lanes around its periphery and Trump’s repeated promises to rip up the Iran nuclear agreement, and the future of global nuclear arms control looks even more uncertain. To be sure, there were more intense periods of danger during the Cold War, but the binary nature of that arms race facilitated arms control when conditions permitted—something that is much harder to do when nuclear dangers are rising on multiple axes.