TEHRAN (FNA)- Three international conferences on the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons, in 2013 and 2014, concluded that irrespective of its cause, the impact of nuclear detonations will not be limited to national boundaries but would cause deep, lasting and potentially irreversible harm to the environment, human health and well-being, as well as to socioeconomic development and social order, threatening the very survival of our species.
The current year will mark 75 years since the razing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with the use of just two relatively small nuclear weapons by the United States.
Today, the detonation of a mere fraction of the nearly 15,000 nuclear weapons existing in the world would create a dense layer that would surround the planet for many years, perhaps for decades, blocking and absorbing sunlight. This so-called “nuclear winter” would cause extremely low temperatures and other climatic changes, destroying agriculture.
Survivors of such bombings would simply starve. Humankind cannot remain oblivious of this persisting danger to its own survival. Furthermore, no country, group of countries or international organization would be able to deal adequately with the humanitarian emergency resulting from an atomic explosion in an inhabited region.
As long as nuclear weapons exist, the danger of their use will also exist. The only guarantee against such use is the complete elimination of these weapons, especially in the volatile region of the Middle East, where Israel has nukes and others like Saudi Arabia wouldn’t mind to have some.
On that note, a congressional report released by the US House Democrats has disclosed that certain top officials of the Trump administration are pressing hard for sharing nuclear technology with Saudi Arabia by building nuclear reactors across the kingdom.
This should raise the grave concern that the Trumpsters have disregarded the country's national security procedures in such a pursuit - and international law. Worse still, President Trump is reportedly directly engaged.
Whatever this is, the action is in defiance of international law and ethnic statutes in pursuit of such cooperation with Saudi Arabia. And it’s not hard to understand given the enormous profits American businesses will be able to rake in and its potential of reviving a new arms race in the Middle East.
President Trump is famous for not shying away from such double standards. Two years ago, amid the scandal of the slaying of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey, he chose to firmly stand by the regime despite fierce international criticism and uproar, and also infamously said that the US would not compromise relations with Riyadh as this relationship generates jobs and income.
Just as the threat of the new coronavirus must be met by cooperation, common-sense and solidarity among peoples and nations, so must the danger of a nuclear war in the Middle East and beyond. In order to help avert such a disaster a comprehensive prohibition of all nuclear test explosions (CTBT) was concluded in 1996, but its full entry into force still awaits signature or ratification by eight states.
In 2017, 122 countries negotiated and adopted a treaty to prohibit nuclear weapons (TPNW). 81 states already signed and 36 have ratified it. Fourteen more ratifications are necessary for it to take effect. As the current global health emergency inspires us to reflect about survival risks and threats, the full entry into force of these instruments loom large as urgent unfinished business.
Both those treaties uphold and reinforce the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), usually considered the cornerstone of the nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament régime. It might be argued that the NPT has contributed to limit actual and prospective proliferators to the current overall number of nine. However, the highest goal that inspires the Treaty - a Middle East and a world free from nuclear weapons - remains unfulfilled and the NPT has been soft on the proliferation of nuclear arms to the US allies.
It may well be impossible to eliminate all disease-causing viruses like COVID-19; yet nuclear disarmament is not only possible, but is a legally binding obligation under the NPT. Fifty years after the Treaty’s inception, it is high time for the possessors of nuclear weapons to effectively comply with this obligation. As with viruses, containment may be good, but eradication is best. This should include getting rid of the nukes that Israel currently possesses and stopping despotic regimes like Saudi Arabia from acquiring them.
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