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Nuclear weapons states not practicing what they preach: Analyst

Friday, 29 April 2016 4:28 AM [ Last Update: Friday, 29 April 2016 8:49 AM ]

US President Barack Obama is seen during a press conference at the Nuclear Security Summit at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC, April 1, 2016. (Photo by AFP)

Press TV has conducted an interview with Scott Rickard, a former US Air Force intelligence linguist, and Michael Lane, the president of the American Institute for Foreign Policy, to discuss global nuclear disarmament.

Rickard says statements made by atomic powers about nuclear test bans are only aimed at discouraging other countries from developing such weapons and the nuclear weapons states do not move to eliminate their own atomic bombs.

The United States has been the number-one developer of nuclear weapons, he says, adding that the US budget for upgrading the destructive technology amounts to “one trillion dollars” over the next 30 years.

He says a small number of countries, chief among them the US, have tested atomic bombs around 2000 times.

Rickard rejects the claim that nuclear weapons make the world safer.

Lane, for his part, argues that nuclear weapons have kept the world safe over the last half century because, he says, they prompt world powers to avoid engaging in military conflicts.

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