Iranian Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi has condemned calls by US President, Donald Trump for the Pentagon to resume nuclear weapons testing.
Araghchi noted in a post on X, “Having rebranded its ‘Department of Defense’ as the ‘Department of War,’ a nuclear-armed bully is resuming testing of atomic weapons.”
“The same bully has been demonising Iran’s peaceful nuclear program and threatening further strikes on our safeguarded nuclear facilities, all in blatant violation of international law.”
Abbas Araghchi
Calling the US “the World’s Most Dangerous Proliferation Risk,” Araghchi asserted that the announcement of a resumption of nuclear tests is “a regressive and irresponsible move and a serious threat to international peace and security.”
He added that the world must unite to hold the US accountable for “normalizing the proliferation of such heinous weapons.”
Trump made the surprise announcement in a Truth Social post yesterday shortly before meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.
Trump said that he had instructed the Pentagon to immediately resume nuclear weapons testing “on an equal basis” with other countries like Russia and China, whose nuclear weapons arsenal will match the US in “five years.”
Russian President, Vladimir Putin announced this week that Moscow had tested its Poseidon nuclear-powered super torpedo, after separately testing new Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missiles earlier in the month.
China also recently displayed its nuclear prowess at a military parade in September, which featured new and modified nuclear weapons systems like the Dongfeng-5 nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile.
Despite these public displays of firepower, neither Russia nor China has carried out a nuclear test; defined as a nuclear explosion above ground, underground, or underwater, in decades, according to the United Nations.
Nuclear testing is banned by the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban-Treaty of 1996. The US, China, and Iran all signed but have not ratified the original treaty, while Russia withdrew its ratification in 2023.
According to the UN, Moscow carried out its last nuclear test in 1990 while still the Soviet Union, and China carried out its last nuclear test in 1996. The last nuclear test by the United Kingdom was in 1991, followed by the US in 1992 and France in 1996. North Korea is the only country that has carried out nuclear tests in the past two decades, with its last test in 2017.
UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres on Thursday decried Trump’s announcement, saying in a statement that “current nuclear risks are already alarmingly high.”
According to his Deputy Spokesperson, Farhan Haqq, Guterres said, “We must never forget the disastrous legacy of over 2,000 nuclear weapons tests carried out over the last 80 years.”
Type Of Nuclear Testing Unclear
Meanwhile Trevor Findlay, a Nuclear Security Expert and honorary professional fellow at the University of Melbourne, told a news agency that it was unclear what type of testing Trump was referring to in his post.
“My assumption is that he means missile launches of nuclear-capable missiles, as North Korea and Russia have been doing very publicly. These do not carry an actual nuclear warhead [but likely a dummy], nor do they create a nuclear explosion.”
Trevor Findlay
He noted that the US already tests its own missiles periodically, both existing ones and ones in development, often splashing down in the Pacific. “It does announce them but tends not to make a big deal of it, like North Korea and Russia,” he said.
Vice Admiral Richard Correll, Trump’s nominee to lead the military command in charge of the nation’s nuclear arsenal, was pressed by US Senators at his confirmation hearing Thursday to try to interpret Trump’s comments. “I wouldn’t presume that the President’s words meant nuclear testing,” Correll said.
Correll pointed out that neither China nor Russia has conducted a nuclear explosive test, but then said, “I’m not reading anything into it or reading anything out of it.”
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