Admiral Fallon: Negotiations Provide Best Solution on Iran

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June 10, 2011

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Today's top nuclear policy stories, with excerpts in bullet form.

Stories we're following today: Friday, June 10, 2011.

Military Attack on Iran Recedes, but Tensions Remain High - By Barbara Slavin in IPS [link]

  • The likelihood of a U.S. or Israeli military attack on Iran's nuclear installations seems miniscule during the remaining months of the Barack Obama administration's first term.
  • [Retired Adm. William "Fox" Fallon] said the best solution would be negotiations with Iran but that "it takes two to tango…The interests of both people are better addressed with engagement and cooperation rather than antagonism and hostility [but] there is no clear path to this preferred alternative anytime soon," he said.

IAEA reports Syria to UN over nuke allegations - By Simon Morgan in AFP [link]

  • The UN atomic watchdog voted Thursday to report Syria to the United Nations Security Council over allegations it built an undeclared nuclear reactor that was then destroyed by Israeli bombs, diplomats said.
  • Washington and its Western allies had asked the IAEA's governing body to find Syria in "non-compliance" with its international obligations and report it to the Security Council in New York.
  • The US would "continue to seek to work with the Russians, the Chinese and all of the members of the Security Council when it comes time to consider this question in New York. Obviously there is still some work to do," US Amb. Glyn Davies said.

Gates Laments Delay in Missile-Defense Agreement With Russia - Viola Gienger and Patrick Donahue in Bloomberg [link]

  • “While I had hoped we would be ready to move ahead on this subject in the NATO-Russia Council, it is clear that we will need more time,” Gates told reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels. “I think the Russians have a long history of hostility and wariness about missile defense, and so I think we just have to keep working at it.”
  • He said Russian leaders, who have steadfastly opposed the system as potentially weakening their own defenses, have been serious about reaching agreement.
  • He also cited “strong consensus support at the NATO-Russia Council for practical cooperation on missile defense directed against threats from outside Europe, such as Iran, and not against each other.”

Engaging Iran - Former Ambassadors Dalton, Hohwü-Christensen, Maltzahn, Metten, Nicoullaud, and Toscano in The L.A. Times [link]

  • As ambassadors to Iran during the last decade, we have all followed closely the development of the nuclear crisis between Iran and the international community. It is unacceptable that the talks have been deadlocked for such a long time.
  • The five permanent members of the Security Council and Germany should certainly keep the focus on matters of political and human rights, but they should also try harder to solve a frustrating and still urgent proliferation problem.
  • The goal of "zero centrifuges operating in Iran, permanently or temporarily," is unrealistic, and it has heavily contributed to the present standoff.
  • The next step should be for the two sides in this conflict to ask the IAEA what additional tools it needs to monitor the Iranian nuclear program fully and provide credible assurances that all the activities connected with it are purely peaceful in intent.

Air Force Eyes $4.6M for ICBM Study in Next Budget - Global Security Newswire [link]

  • The U.S. Air Force said this week it would spend $4.6 million in fiscal 2012 to plan for a second-phase assessment of possible plans for modernizing its Minuteman 3 ICBM arsenal two decades from now.
  • The Air Force did not say from which spending accounts it would draw these funds nor offer a justification for having omitted such a request from the president's formal budget plan.

State Seeks Compensation for Nevada Test Site - By Ralph Vartabedian in The L.A. Times [link]

  • The Nevada Legislature has taken the first step in demanding that the federal government make amends for massive radioactive contamination left by decades of nuclear weapons testing on a swath of desert the size of Rhode Island.
  • The Energy Department detonated 921 nuclear warheads underground before testing ended in 1992. An estimated 1.6 trillion gallons of water in aquifers under the site are radioactively contaminated with the byproducts of the bomb tests.