Brussels, 16/09/2005 (Agence Europe) - The German Greens Angelika Beer and Cem Özdemir strongly criticised a Pentagon document setting out the possibility of preventive nuclear strikes. “By producing plans announcing that it would consider using nuclear weapons against terrorists and nuclear proliferators, the US is in danger of starting a new nuclear arms race. As Europeans we must stop this attempt to undermine international law (…) To prevent uncontrolled escalations we must follow the route of negotiations and examine the possibility of using exchanges, trade-offs, confidence-building measures and security guarantees”, the two MEPs write.
On Tuesday during a press conference in Berlin, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov described as a “very dangerous tendency” the development of the US nuclear doctrine as envisaged in the document drafted by a Pentagon committee and which, according to a spokesperson of the US Defence Department, has not yet been submitted to Donald Rumsfeld. Known as the “doctrine for joint nuclear operations”, the document dated 15 March 2005 suggests that, in future, the US armed forces could ask the president for authorisation to use the atomic bomb in some cases to prevent aggression by weapons of mass destruction against the United States, an international alliance or civilian populations. “Lowering the threshold for using atomic weapons is dangerous in itself (…). Such projects do not stop others from developing nuclear weapons but encourage them to do so”, Sergei Ivanov deplored.