Obama Highlights the Danger of Nuclear Weapons in Afghan Speech

Stories we're following today:

President Obama on the New Way Forward in Afghanistan - White House [link]

• We will have to take away the tools of mass destruction. That is why I have made it a central pillar of my foreign policy to secure loose nuclear materials from terrorists; to stop the spread of nuclear weapons; and to pursue the goal of a world without them. Because every nation must understand that true security will never come from an endless race for ever-more destructive weapons – true security will come for those who reject them.
• Watch President Obama's full speech below:

Russia Says It Will Join Any Sanctions Consensus vs. Iran - Reuters [link]

• Russia will join any consensus on more sanctions against Iran, a senior Russian diplomatic source said on Tuesday after Tehran declared it would expand nuclear activity in defiance of a U.N. rebuke.
• It was a thinly veiled Russian warning to Iran of waning patience with its failure to allay fears it aims to develop atom bombs in secret, and hinted that Iran could no longer rely on Russia to stop tougher world action against it.

Help Jon Kyl Save Us From... Don Rumsfeld? - Heather Hurlburt in the Huffington Post [link]

• Touchingly, although he opposes the treaty, Arizona Senator Jon Kyl has expressed great concern that, in the gap before the new agreement is ratified, the extensive verification measures that the US and Russia use to keep an eye on each other's arsenals will lapse and allow Russia to "break out."
• No, you have to go back to 2002, when the Secretary of Defense - I believe his name was Rumsfeld - appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and said:
  These critics operate from a flawed premise: that, absent such an agreement, our two countries would both try to break out of the constraints of this treaty and increase our deployed nuclear forces. Nothing could be further from the truth.
• People have criticized Kyl for politicizing a national security issue that enjoys such broad bipartisan support. But maybe we've got it all wrong. Maybe he's just discovered the value of critiquing Rumsfeld.
  

A Change in Leadership at the IAEA - James Acton at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace [link]

• On Monday, Mohammed ElBaradei stepped down after twelve years as head of the UN's nuclear watchdog. Yukiya Amano, ElBaradei's successor as director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, will confront growing proliferation challenges from nuclear weapons programs and nuclear power industries across Asia, the Middle East, and beyond.
• In a new Q&A, James Acton reflects on ElBaradei's leadership, discusses Amano's agenda, and calls attention to the importance of the IAEA's work.

The Worst Nuclear Disasters - TIME Photo Gallery [link]

• TIME Magazine examines the ten worst nuclear disasters to ever take place, including an accident at Yucca Flat in 1970 where 86 workers were exposed to radiation after a plug failed and radioactive debris vented into the atmosphere.