Panel calls for US Navy expansion

US Navy warships, file photo


Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=136845§ionid=3510203


A congressionally mandated defense panel in the US says the Pentagon should increase the number of people serving in the navy to deal with rising Asian powers.

The statement came in a report headed by former White House National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley and former Defense Secretary William Perry on Thursday, urging the expansion of US naval power in Asia from its current fleet of 282 ships to 346 ships, the Washington Times reported.

The independent panel has also called for the US military to confront "the rise of new global great powers in Asia," adding that it must prepare for the "continued struggle for power in the Persian Gulf and the greater Middle East."

"In order to preserve US interests, the United States will need to retain the ability to transit freely the areas of the Western Pacific for security and economic reasons," the Washington Times quoted the panel as saying.

The recommendation for a bigger navy goes against the policies of Defense Secretary Robert Gates, however, who maintains that US naval forces are currently unrivaled.

After reviewing the Pentagon's Quadrennial Defense Review strategy, the panel has also recommended that the US merge its military, intelligence and foreign assistance spending budgets.

According to the panel, the latest QDR is a "wartime" review, which "continues the trend of the last 15 years," and is prepared by a department that is focused "understandably and appropriately on responding to the threats America now faces and winning the wars in which the US is now engaged."

Iran: Nuclear Powers unaccountable in arms expansion

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=117744§ionid=351020101


As global disarmament talks begin in Paris, a senior Iranian nuclear official lashes out at atomic powers for holding themselves “unaccountable” in the face of international law.

“Powers, who themselves have used atomic weapons, are testing new generations of nuclear arms, instead of giving into the international disarmament regulations,” Iran's top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili said in Tehran on Tuesday.

“They are even thinking of expanding these weapons. They hold themselves accountable to no authority whatsoever,” he added.

While the former US President George W. Bush was in office, the Pentagon began a campaign for a return to nuclear testing, based on the scheme that the current US nuclear arsenal would not be adequate for the future.

Washington has also sought to develop new 'low-yield' nuclear weapons and improved nuclear bunker buster bombs to penetrate what it describes as hardened targets buried deep underground.

Jalili's comments come as the 'Global Zero' Summit against Nuclear Weapons kicks off in the French capital, bringing together some 200 political, military, business and spiritual leaders in the hope of finding a way to a total nuclear disarmament.

Speaking ahead of the summit, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon called for meaningful steps to move forward the world's nuclear disarmament agenda.

He also warned of the serious threat that nuclear arsenals continue to pose to the global security.

"Nuclear weapons threaten our security. And every dollar spent on weapons is one less spent on schools, life-saving medicine, or research into life-affirming technologies," he said, in a video message to international officials gathered in Paris.

"There is a need for action at these sessions -- meaningful steps that move us forward," he added, referring to the summit underway and similar upcoming events such as the Summit on Nuclear Security in Washington, just two months away, followed by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference in May.


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