Obama: warns against ISIS laying hands on dirty bombs
American President Barack Obama has
urged world leaders to do more to safeguard vulnerable nuclear
facilities to prevent “madmen” from groups like Islamic State from
getting their hands on an atomic weapon or a radioactive “dirty bomb.”
Speaking at a nuclear security summit in Washington, Obama said the
world faced a persistent and evolving threat of nuclear terrorism
despite progress in reducing such risks. “We cannot be complacent,” he
said.
Obama said no group had succeeded in obtaining bomb materials but
that al Qaeda had long sought them, and he cited actions by Islamic
State militants behind recent attacks in Paris and Brussels that raised
similar concerns.
“There is no doubt that if these madmen ever got their hands on a
nuclear bomb or nuclear material, they would certainly use it to kill as
many innocent people as possible,” he said. “It would change our
world.”
Obama hosted more than 50 world leaders for his fourth and final
summit focussed on efforts to lock down atomic materials to guard
against nuclear terrorism, which he called “one of the greatest threats
to global security” in the 21st century.
Obama has less than 10 months left in office to follow through on one
of his signature foreign policy initiatives. While gains have been
made, arms-control advocates say the diplomatic process – which Obama
conceived and championed – has lost momentum and could slow further once
he leaves the White House in January.
A boycott by Russian President Vladimir Putin, unwilling to join in a
U.S.-dominated gathering at a time of increased tensions between
Washington and Moscow over Ukraine and Syria, may have contributed to
summit results marked by mostly technical measures instead of policy
breakthroughs.
At the closing news conference, Obama, a Democrat, made clear that
the raucous Republican presidential race, particularly controversial
comments by party front-runner Donald Trump, weighed on leaders’
discussions on the summit sidelines.
Obama sternly dismissed as proof of foreign-policy ignorance Trump’s
recent suggestion that Japan and South Korea should be allowed to build
their own nuclear arsenals, putting him at odds with decades of U.S.
policy.
“The person who made the statements doesn’t know much about foreign
policy or nuclear policy or the Korean peninsula, or the world
generally,” Obama said, adding that Americans don’t want anyone with
such views to occupy the White House.
‘DIRTY BOMB’ THREAT
Deadly bomb attacks in Brussels last month have fuelled concern that
Islamic State could eventually target nuclear plants, steal material and
develop radioactive dirty bombs. Militants were found to have
videotaped the daily routine of a senior manager of a Belgian nuclear
plant, Obama said.
Obama said the required 102 countries have now ratified an amendment
to a nuclear security treaty that would tighten protections against
nuclear theft and smuggling. “We have measurably reduced the risks,” he
said.
But he acknowledged that with roughly 2,000 tons of nuclear material
stored around the world, “not all of this is properly secured.”
Obama, wrapping up the summit, said leaders had agreed to strengthen
their nuclear facilities against cyber attacks, something that outside
experts see as a major weak point.
The United States and Japan also announced they had completed the
long-promised task of removing all highly enriched uranium and separated
plutonium fuels from a Japanese research reactor. Japan is an avowedly
anti-nuclear-weapons state as the only country to have ever suffered a
nuclear attack.
Despite significant strides by Obama in persuading dozens of
countries to rid themselves of bomb-making materials or reduce and
safeguard stockpiles, much of the world’s plutonium and enriched uranium
remain vulnerable to theft.
Obama convened a separate meeting of world powers to take stock of
the landmark nuclear pact they negotiated with Iran last July. It is a
critical component of his nuclear disarmament agenda and a major piece
of his foreign policy legacy.
Obama inaugurated the first Nuclear Security Summit nearly six years
ago, after a 2009 speech in Prague laying out the goal of a world free
of nuclear weapons. There is no guarantee that Obama’s successor will
keep the issue a high priority.
He made no public mention of Putin as a summit no-show. But he did
say that because of the Russian’s leader’s emphasis on building up his
military, there was unlikely to be any further deals for reducing the
two countries’ vast nuclear weapons stockpiles during what is left of
the Obama presidency.
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