Iran Nuclear Deal: Enriched Uranium Limit Breached, IAEA Confirms
BBC News
Iran has breached the limit on its stockpile of low-enriched uranium set under a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, a watchdog has confirmed. The International Atomic Energy Agency said its inspectors had verified the 300kg (660lb) cap had been exceeded. Iran stepped up production of enriched uranium, used to make reactor fuel but also potentially nuclear bombs, in May. It said it was responding to sanctions reinstated by the US after President Donald Trump abandoned the deal. The UK and Germany have called on Iran to reverse its decision, while the US said its strategy of "maximum pressure" would continue. President Donald Trump warned that the country was "playing with fire" after exceeding the limit.
Remembering Janne
Francis Gavin | War on the Rocks
The news of Janne Nolan’s sudden passing was utterly devastating to the many who knew and loved her. Dr. Nolan was a giant in the national security world, writing pathbreaking works on nuclear strategy and diagnosing the power of bureaucracy and consensus to shape American policy. She was an amazing mentor to scores of scholars and analysts over decades. To women in the field, she was a brave trailblazer. She excelled in elite university programs, top think tanks, and policy positions, and few were better at “bridging the gap.” Janne’s Nuclear Security Working Group did extraordinary work to convene experts and policymakers from both parties to deal with the vexing questions surrounding the bomb. No one was better at bringing people of different backgrounds together, facilitating long-lasting friendships and community. Her deep knowledge, wisdom, and guidance will be deeply missed.
Trump Holds Historic Meeting with Kim with a Tweet, Handshake and ‘Flowers of Hope’
Roberta Rampton and Joyce Lee | Reuters
U. S. President Donald Trump took a historic step into North Korea on Sunday, drawing on his penchant for showmanship and surprise to pull off talks with Kim Jong Un in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that divides the two Koreas. The drama was magnified by the choice of the Panmunjom truce village as the venue for his meeting with Kim, where 66 years ago Americans and North Koreans huddled to draw up the Military Demarcation Line following the bitter 1950-53 war. “Stepping across that line has been a great honor,” Trump said as he sat down with Kim, amid a chaotic scene of U.S. and North Korean reporters jostling to capture the historic moment while secret service agents struggled to contain them. Earlier in the day, Trump held a meeting and lunched with South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the ornate presidential Blue House in Seoul. Then, the two confirmed the meeting with Kim was indeed going to happen.“President Trump gave big hope to the world through his tweet yesterday,” Moon said. “Seeing that tweet, I felt like flowers of hope were blossoming on the Korean peninsula.”
Trump Officials Are Split Over Approach to North Korea Talks
Edward Wong | New York Times
As President Trump reveled in his historic weekend stroll into North Korea, administration officials were sharply at odds on Monday over what demands to make of Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, while preparing to restart negotiations on a nuclear deal. Pushing an internal debate into the open, John R. Bolton, the national security adviser and the most prominent hawk in the administration, reacted angrily to a report in The New York Times about the possibility of a deal to effectively freeze North Korea’s nuclear activity in return for American concessions. Some officials are considering a freeze as a first step toward a more comprehensive agreement for Mr. Kim to give up his entire nuclear program. Mr. Bolton has long insisted that the North Koreans dismantle their nuclear program and give up their entire arsenal of warheads before getting any rewards. “This was a reprehensible attempt by someone to box in the president,” Mr. Bolton wrote on Twitter. “There should be consequences.”
U.S. Arms Control Office Critically Understaffed Under Trump, Experts Say
Julian Borger | Guardian
A state department office tasked with negotiating and implementing nuclear disarmament treaties has lost more than 70% of its staff over the past two years, as the Trump administration moves towards a world without arms control for the first time in nearly half a century. The Office of Strategic Stability and Deterrence Affairs, normally a repository of expertise and institutional knowledge that does the heavy lifting of arms control, has been whittled down from 14 staffers at the start of the Trump administration to four, according to the former staffers. The state department declined to comment. The state department has instead focused its arms control efforts on “creating the environment for disarmament” (CEND) shifting the onus for disarmament from the nuclear weapons powers to non-weapons states. An invitation to a 2 July state department conference on the subject invites non-nuclear states to come up with “measures to modify the security environment to reduce incentives for states to retain, acquire, or increase their holdings of nuclear weapons”.
On Creating the Conditions for Nuclear Disarmament: Past Lessons, Future Prospects
Brad Roberts | Washington Quarterly
Some basic questions about nuclear disarmament are back. The co-director of the Obama administration’s Nuclear Posture Review pulls no punches, probing deeply into that experience, coming to terms with the complexities that confront any serious effort to create the conditions for further disarmament progress, and drawing key lessons while recommending next steps.