TEHRAN – New members of Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) tobe added by Russia, media reported on Sunday.
According to the Russian media ‘ Russki Westnik’, Head of the State DumaDefense Committee Vladimir Shamanov said that the new treaty will bemultilateral and will include countries which gained access to nucleartechnology after 1988.
‘Now that the US has shown readiness to practice the innovative measures wehave taken in the past 10 years, then Russia will be seeking to build anon-proliferation mechanism for nuclear missiles with a number of countrieslike China, North Korea, Iran, Pakistan and India,’ he said.
According to western media, the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Fridayannounced that his country will suspend the Nuclear Arms Control Treatywith Russia in six months if Moscow fails to stop what he termed asviolating the agreement.
America’s President Donald Trump, too, has confirmed that the US is leavingthe Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, and said “we will moveforward with developing our own military response options.”
The Trump administration has a long history of abandoning internationaltreaties. Trump had earlier announced – on May 8, 2018 – the withdrawalfrom the JCPOA, which was condemned by other parties to the 2015 agreementand their emphasis to stay in the landmark international deal.
Earlier, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in a messagecriticized the US for another illegal withdrawal, saying ‘Yet anotherwithdrawal from an accord by the Trump administration; this time the#INFTreaty. It’s not just the #JCPOA or Iran: Seems this clique is allergicto anything w/ US signature on it. Message: Any deal with US govt is notworth the ink; even treaties ratified by Congress.