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US nuclear modernization program violating NPT: Pundit

Monday, 29 February 2016 6:14 AM [ Last Update: Monday, 29 February 2016 6:12 AM ]

The wing of a Convair B-36J Peacemaker Strategic Bomber is seen as people walk past a Boeing B-52 Stratofortress at the Pima Air and Space Museum in Tucson, Arizona, May 13, 2015. (AFP)

Press TV has interviewed Brian Becker, with the ANSWER Coalition in Washington, and Lee Kaplan, investigative journalist from San Francisco, to discuss the planned modernization of the US nuclear arsenal.

Becker says the United States is not only violating the international Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), but it is also neglecting its own law about dismantling atomic bombs.

He adds that the United States is trying to introduce a new generation of nuclear weapons and miniaturize the destructive weaponry to be more useable in preemptive attacks against countries such as North Korea.

The commentator censures the possession of nuclear weapons, saying that such asymmetric arms are “scourge against humanity” because they cannot distinguish between civilians and combatants.

He further says the United States has been the only country that has ever used nuclear bombs -- against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II.

Ruling out the claim that the Obama administration wants to renovate its intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), he stresses that America is pursuing advancement of a new generation of nuclear weapons to turn them into “smart nuclear bombs.”

Kaplan, for his part, believes the United States requires modernizing its nuclear arsenal for deterrence purposes. He also thinks the country is facing a nuclear threat because of the nuclear deal with Iran.

He adds that the US anticipated in 1970 that its nuclear weapons would be “good for 10 years,” therefore the arsenal needs to be renovated.

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www.presstv.co.uk