IS ‘madmen’ will nuke us, says Obama
WORLD FACES ‘TERRORIST APOCALYPSE’
WASHINGTON: Extremist “madmen” from the Islamic State (IS) would not hesitate to launch a catastrophic nuclear attack, US President Barack Obama warned global leaders meeting in Washington on Friday.
Hoping to galvanise global action to prevent extremists from getting hold of nuclear weapons or material for a “dirty bomb”, Mr Obama painted an apocalyptic picture of the impact of a nuclear terror attack.
That threat has loomed large over the two-day summit, amid revelations that Islamic State had carried out video surveillance on a top Belgian nuclear scientist.
“Isil has already used chemical weapons, including mustard gas, in Syria and Iraq,” Mr Obama said.
“There is no doubt that if these madmen ever got their hands on a nuclear bomb or nuclear material, they most certainly would use it to continue to kill as many innocent people as possible.”
The summit — attended by dozens of world leaders and delegates — is focused on securing global stockpiles of nuclear materials, stored by the military and by the medical and power industries.
Mr Obama said about 2,000 tonnes of nuclear materials are stored around the world at civilian and military facilities, but some of it is not properly secured.
“Just the smallest amount of plutonium — about the size of an apple — would kill and injure hundreds of thousands of innocent people,” he said. “It would be a humanitarian, political, economic and environmental catastrophe with global ramifications for decades.”
The nuclear security summit comes in the wake of attacks in Paris and Brussels that have killed dozens and exposed Europe’s inability to thwart destabilising attacks or track Islamic State operatives returning from Iraq and Syria.
“As Isil is squeezed in Syria and Iraq, we can anticipate it lashing out elsewhere,” he said. “We need to do even more to prevent the flow of foreign terrorist fighters.”
This is the fourth in a series of nuclear security summits convened at Mr Obama’s behest and with the president leaving office next year, it may well be the last.
But it risked being overshadowed by two men who were not even there: Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Experts say Mr Putin’s refusal to attend has made it almost impossible to achieve substantive reductions in fissile material — most of which is held by Russia and the United States.
Mr Obama sais Mr Putin’s focus on building up the military at the expense of economic development has slowed efforts to reduce nuclear weapons worldwide.
“My preference would be to bring down further our nuclear arsenal,” Mr Obama said.
After the US and Russia signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty II (Start) in 2010 that went into force a year later, the Obama administration approached Moscow to consider a next phase for arms reductions.
Mr Obama said on Friday he has not seen the progress he would have liked from Mr Putin “because of the vision that he’s been pursuing of emphasising military might over development” and economic diversification.
Mr Putin said last June that Russia would add more than 40 intercontinental ballistic missiles to its nuclear arsenal to modernise its programme and overcome anti-missile defense systems near its border.
The US president said the possibility of progress in future years on arms reductions with Russia remains as both countries continue to abided by the Start agreement. But reductions during the less-than 10 months remaining in Mr Obama’s tenure are unlikely, he said.
He also discussed the nuclear deal with Iran, urging world powers to carry out their end of the agreement so that foreign companies can do business in the Islamic republic.
“So long as Iran is carrying out its end of the bargain, we think it is important for the world community to carry out our end of the bargain,” Mr Obama said.
The international community has lifted a raft of sanctions on Iran in exchange for the country curbing its controversial nuclear programme. But Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has accused Washington of failing to respect the terms of the agreement.