WMD Archive

Last week, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported once again that Iran had defied U.N. Security Council demands to stop enriching uranium. And in response, the United States once again demanded that international sanctions against Iran be made more severe. This call for sanctions — which has become routine by now — would be a lot more credible if it were not for a one embarrassing fact: The United States now lags many other countries in enforcing sanctions that the U.N. Security Council has already approved. One of the few real penalties to survive previous rounds of council negotiation over […]

On May 9, Her Majesty Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands officially unveiled a Memorial in The Hague for all those who have perished from chemical weapons. The International Day of Remembrance for all Victims of Chemical Weapons falls annually on April 29. This year’s date was also the 10th anniversary of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). Governments and security experts used the occasion to laud the CWC as well as suggest ways to improve it. The CWC bans the development, production, acquisition, stockpiling, transfer, and use of chemical weapons (CW). Its provisions are of indefinite duration and apply to all […]

BERLIN — The Iranian nuclear issue was a major topic of discussion during this week’s EU-U.S. summit in Washington. The current Western strategy of combining increasingly severe sanctions on Iran with offers of civil nuclear and other assistance has not succeeded in limiting Iran’s progress towards achieving the capacity to manufacture a nuclear bomb. Although European Commission President José Manuel Barroso warned Iranian leaders against trying to divide Europe and the United States, this week’s meeting in Washington suggests that EU and U.S. leaders disagree over the appropriate next steps toward Tehran. Despite years of negotiations and sanctions, President Mahmoud […]