US aims to target Russian nuclear arsenal with INF withdrawal: Expert

The main reason behind the US decision to pull out of a landmark arms control treaty with Russia is to “target the Russian nuclear arsenal” a British expert says, warning that Washington should be held responsible in case an arms race breaks out with Moscow.

“The fact that the world again is witness to an arms race between two superpowers is solely the fault of the Americans and its is irrefutable because there is overwhelming evidence to blame the American government for this arms race,” said Marcus Papadopoulos, a publisher and editor at the Politics First website in London, during a Friday edition of Press TV's The Debate program.

“The Americans are taking very decisive and hostile steps to target the Russian nuclear arsenal and to target the industrial military complex of the Russian Federation because the Americans are acutely aware…that Russia is the only country capable of not just challenging American global hegemony but of literally destroying America,” Papadopoulos said.

“So that’s why the Americans had to kill the INF treaty because in order to take a decisive action against Russia, they had to get rid of the INF treaty,” he added.

The Pentagon said on Monday that it had test-launched a conventionally configured, ground-launched cruise missile with a range of more than 500 Kilometers.

It was the first such test since US President Donald Trump officially terminated the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) with Russia earlier this month.

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The treaty, signed by then-US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, banned land-based missiles with a range of between 500 to 5,500 kilometers.

Washington accused Moscow of violating the treaty, an accusation the Kremlin has denied.

Reacting to the Monday test, the Russian envoy to the United Nations warned that the world was on the verge of a new arms race as the US had already started the test-launch of a formerly banned missile following its recent withdrawal from the landmark arms control treaty with Moscow. 

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang also said at a news briefing in Beijing that the US should “let go of its Cold War mentality” and “do more things that are conducive to... international and regional peace and tranquility.”

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China and Russia warn that a new US missile test has heightened military tensions and risks triggering an “arms race.”

The British publisher also pointed to the strategies the US employs to intimidate and bully those countries that challenge its hegemony, saying that China has to be “very careful.”

“The Americans do not wish to share power in the world with any other country; any country which challenges America will be first of all demonized by the American mainstream media. Secondly, that country’s economy will be targeted, and thirdly, that country will see an increase of the presence of the American military close to its borders on the ground, maritime borders and in the air. So, that is why the Chinese have to be very careful about this growing threat,” Papadopoulos underlined.

Trump aiming to target both Russia and China

Daniel Lazare, journalist and author from New York, the other panelist on Press TV's The Debate program, denounced US behavior as “very aggressive” and said Washington has in mind not only to intimidate Russia but also China.  

“The US is behaving very aggressively at this point; Trump is trying to assert US global hegemony in a new and aggressive way,” Lazare said.

“The real target of the latest missile test is not only Russia but China as well. The US aims to ring China with a whole cruise missile nuclear attacks system, because it sees China as a major threat in the western pacific,” he added.

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The American journalist went on to say that the US was "a highly aggressive superpower in the best of times and under Trump has turned even more so. It has adopted an extremely hostile attitude towards Russia and to all countries that it sees somehow within Russia’s orbit.”   

China, already involved in a trade war with the US, has said Beijing "has no interest" in being part of any arms control treaty with Washington and Moscow.

China has also warned the US against deploying new missile systems to various Asian countries, including Japan and South Korea.

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