RNA - A senior Russian official has cautioned the United States against a plan to withdraw from a landmark Cold War-era nuclear arms control treaty with Russia, saying such a move would have grave consequence for the world.
US President Donald Trump announced last month that Washington would withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), which was signed toward the end of the Cold War in 1987 by then-President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
The treaty — seen as a milestone in ending the Cold War arms race between the two superpowers — banned ground-launch nuclear missiles with ranges from 500 kilometers to 5,500 kilometers and led to the elimination of nearly 2,700 short- and medium-range missiles.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told a news briefing on Monday that leaving the treaty would provoke “a new round of arms races.”
Garrie, a political writer, said, “Intermediate range nuclear weapons and tactical nuclear weapons are going to be the things in the 21st century.”
“Many may not want to hear that and many may not have anticipated that in the late 1980s when the denuclearization among the superpowers was something of a rule rather than the exception. Today, the world is going towards the opposition direction as the technology to deploy small nuclear weapons or smaller becomes ever more sophisticated,” he added.
“So does the proliferation of any weapon make the world more dangerous? Generally yes depending on whose they are in. But I think this whole tit-for-tat business with the US and Russia is really more of a side show especially when what we've got the rogue states like the Zionist regime which illegally has nuclear weapons and no one is saying a thing about it. Koreans are deescalating their nuclear program and cooperating with South Korea, US, Russia, China and with others. That’s really a positive development. While on the other end of this spectrum is Israel,” he stated.
“And then of course you have nuclear weapons in south Asia, where the next war between India and Pakistan could turn into a nuclear war a lot more easily than people think,” he added.
“I think those are the real issues to consider in respect of the problems of nuclear proliferation. I am not particularly worried about the US and Russia dropping nukes on each other. It did not happen in the last century and I don’t think it is going to happen in this one,” the analyst concluded.
Source: Press TV
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