Obama’s New Nuclear Policy Excludes Iran
Iran excepted from Obama’s new nuclear policy
President Obama’s new strategy to limit U.S. use of nuclear weapons would not apply to “outliers like Iran and North Korea,” he said.
The new policy, which Obama discussed in an interview with The New York Times that was published on Monday, ahead of the president’s planned nuclear security summit, would apply strict conditions on when the United States would be able to use nuclear weapons. It would commit the United States to avoid using nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states in compliance with the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, even if such states attacked America with nonconventional arms such as biological or chemical weapons.
Obama also plans to further cut the U.S. nuclear arsenal and freeze development of new nuclear weapons. The idea behind the policy, called the Nuclear Posture Review, is to take a step toward making nuclear weapons obsolete and remove the incentives for other states to pursue nuclear weapons, Obama told the Times.
“We are going to want to make sure that we can continue to move towards less emphasis on nuclear weapons,” Obama said, to “make sure that our conventional weapons capability is an effective deterrent in all but the most extreme circumstances.”
The president said in the interview that treaty violators like Iran would not be subject to the new policy.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!