US, Russian leaders sign agreement to negotiate lower limits on long-range nuclear weapons

September 24th, 2009 Israel welcomes Russian stand on Iran sanctionsJERUSALEM — A senior Israeli official welcomes steps by Russia toward endorsing additional sanctions against Iran as a way of stopping its nuclear program. Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon said Russian President Dmitry Medvedev opened the door to a firm international stand against Iran.

July 9th, 2009 UK PM to set out plan for nuclear talksL'AQUILA, Italy — British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Thursday he will soon propose sweeping changes to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty that would require states suspected of seeking to build nuclear weapons to prove that they are not. The current language requires those seeking sanctions under the treaty to prove that suspect countries such as Iran are trying to make nuclear arms.

July 7th, 2009 Russia warns US over missile shieldMOSCOW — Russia's foreign minister warned Tuesday that the U.S. would jeopardize progress toward a new treaty with Russia on nuclear arms cuts if it decides to create a global missile defense system.

July 7th, 2009 NEW YORK - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon Tuesday praised the new pact by the US and Russia to reduce by as much as a third of their nuclear arsenals, which was reached in Moscow between the leaders of the two countries. US President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed Monday a Joint Understanding for a follow-on agreement to the Strategic Arms Reductions Treaty (START), committing themselves to reduce strategic warheads to a range of 1,500-1,675, and their strategic delivery vehicles to a range of 500-1,000.

July 6th, 2009 Obama, Medvedev agree to pursue nuclear reductionMOSCOW — President Barack Obama said he and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev are countering "a sense of drift" in relations between their nations with preliminary agreement Monday to reduce the world's two largest nuclear stockpiles to as few as 1,500 warheads each. "We must lead by example, and that's what we are doing here today," Obama said as he and his Russian host pointed their arsenals toward the lowest levels of any U.S.-Russia arms control agreement.

July 6th, 2009 Analysis: US, Russia have different views on nukesWASHINGTON — The new U.S.-Russia plan to negotiate deeper cuts in nuclear weapons fits well with each country's shifting focus — the U.S. toward more reliance on precision conventional weapons and Russia toward more modern short-range nuclear weapons to offset U.S.

June 25th, 2009 Nixon administration pressured Israel on nukesWASHINGTON — Inside the Nixon administration four decades ago, American officials weighed options to pressure Israel to declare that it had a nuclear weapons program. U.S. officials concluded Israel was "actively working to improve its capability to produce nuclear weapons on short notice." In an unsigned National Security Council memo, prepared sometime between April 1969 and March 1970, officials worried that the program might make elusive peace with the Arabs even harder to attain.

May 30th, 2009 Obama cheers step toward new nuclear arms pactWASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is welcoming an agreement by the 65-nation Conference on Disarmament to open the way to negotiate a new nuclear arms control treaty. He says the decision signals a commitment to work together on what he calls a fundamental challenge.

May 23rd, 2009 WASHINGTON - Stating that Pakistan's nuclear weapon is a "deterrent" against India, the country's top diplomat to the US Saturday expressed willingness to enter into an agreement with New Delhi to phase out all nuclear arms possessed by the two countries. Appearing on US television to make a public appeal to donate aid for the displaced people in the Swat valley, Pakistan's ambassador to the US Hussein Haqqani insisted that the nuclear weapons of his country are safe and there should be no concern about their security.

May 19th, 2009 MOSCOW - Russia and the US have started the first round of talks here on a new strategic arms reduction treaty, the Russian foreign ministry said Tuesday. The US delegation is led by Rose Gottemoeller, US assistant secretary of state and the Russian side is headed by Anatoly Antonov, director of the security and disarmament department of the Russian foreign ministry.

April 1st, 2009 LONDON - US President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev agreed Wednesday to draw up a new deal on nuclear disarmament. The leaders issued a joint statement after meeting in London for the first time since Obama's inauguration Jan 20.

March 15th, 2009 MOSCOW - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has offered Russia the use of an island of his country for temporary hosting of Russian long-range aviation, an air force official said Saturday. 'Chavez proposed to us a whole island with an airfield that we can use for temporary basing of strategic bombers,' said Major General Anatoly Zhikharev, the chief of Russia's long-range aviation staff.

February 16th, 2009 MOSCOW - The Iranian defence minister, now visiting Moscow, is seeking advanced surface-to-air missiles that could help Iran counter air strikes, a Russian newspaper reported Tuesday. Mostafa Mohammad Najjar met with his Russian counterpart Anatoly Serdyukov on 'current and future issues of bilateral military relations', the Russian defence ministry said.

February 6th, 2009 MUNICH - The prospective US missile defence shield in Central Europe targets Russia's nuclear deterrent, Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov has said. Speaking at the 45th Munich Conference on Security Policy Friday, he also said Russia is proposing a ban on the placement of strategic offensive weapons outside national borders in a new Russia-US arms reduction agreement.

January 13th, 2009 MOSCOW - Iran is confident that Russia will fulfil its commitment of building its first nuclear power plant in Bushehr, Iran's envoy to Russia has said. 'Iran did not believe that the Russian side has deliberately delayed completion of the 1,000-MW power plant in Bushehr,' Mahmoud-Reza Sajjadi told a Russian newspaper, the IRNA news agency reported.