Obama & Rouhani Should Meet By Lt. General Robert Gard, Jr. (USA, Ret.) This week, Iran’s recently elected moderate President Hassan Rouhani will stand before the UN General Assembly and reaffirm for the world Iran’s renewed commitment to a diplomatic solution to the nuclear standoff. The Obama administration should use this opportunity to test Tehran’s […]
Navy Tries a Budget Sleight-of-Hand to Pay for Ballistic Missile Submarines
by Kingston Reif The budget busting Ohio class submarine replacement program is fast becoming a roaring migraine headache for the US Navy. In an attempt to skirt the pain caused by the program’s enormous price tag, estimated to be over $100 billion, the Navy and its supporters in Congress are insisting that the program be […]
Eleven Questions about the U.S.-Russia Framework to Rid Syria of Chemical Weapons
On September 14th, 2013, the U.S. and Russian foreign ministers announced an agreement to rid Syria of its chemical weapons. Later that day, Syria submitted its articles of accession to the Chemical Weapons Convention to the Secretary-General of the United Nations. The Convention prohibits Member States from producing, stockpiling, stockpiling or using chemical weapons and sets out a 10-year time line for stockpile destruction. The U.S.-Russian framework seeks to disarm Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile by early or mid 2014.
The U.S. has begun to talk about the timeline in the framework as goals rather than hard-and-fast deadlines. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons must approve this framework agreement and the UN Security Council needs to pass a resolution requiring that Syria comply with the plan and establish an enforcement mechanism.
The U.S. and Russia have set forth an ambitious timeline to declare, verify, inspect, secure, manage and destroy Syria’s estimated 1,000 metric ton chemical weapons arsenal during an ongoing civil war.
This framework raises several questions, which he address in a detailed analysis over at the Center website here.
Questions on U.S.-Russian Framework to Remove Syria’s Chemical Weapons
Eleven questions and answers designed to examine the effectiveness and potential success of the U.S.-Russian framework to rid Syria of its chemical weapons.
Politico Pro Story on Undersecretary for Arms Control Confirmation Hearing Quotes Kingston Reif ($)
Lawmakers press for W.H. promise on nukes September 26, 2013 By Leigh Munsil Senate arms control hawks challenged President Barack Obama on Thursday to promise that he would not unilaterally reduce the size of the nuclear arsenal, despite his comments earlier this year. Members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, including Sens. Robert Menendez, Bob […]