Just hours after suicide bombers killed at least 36 people and injured nearly 100 others on packed subway trains in Moscow, Russian and American dignitaries expressed concerns that someday terrorist attacks could be carried out using nuclear weapons.
“I think that what happened today in Moscow is an act of brutal terrorism that is certainly, absolutely unacceptable,” said Sergey Kislyak, Russian Federation ambassador to the United States. “It’s just a reminder that terrorists wouldn’t stop at anything, and they are willing to take innocent lives with disregard even to theirs.”
Ambassador Kislyak was preparing to speak at a nuclear weapons disarmament conference at Georgia Tech University in Atlanta today when news of the Moscow bombing broke. He pointed to the deadly rush hour attack as a grave warning that keeping nuclear weapons out of the hands of terrorists means eliminating them completely.
“We have more than 70 countries working with us in order to prevent this from happening,” Kislyak said. “I think it’s a good example of what Russia and the United States can do together to address this issue. But it’s not nearly enough. We need to double this effort.”
Former US Senator Sam Nunn hosted Kislyak, along with several other academic, government and private sector experts, to discuss the possibility of a global elimination of nuclear weapons. He says the post-cold war drive to reduce them has gathered unprecedented momentum as nuclear capabilities spread beyond Russia and the United States.
“Two major nuclear powers is one thing,” said Senator Nunn. “Preventing materials from getting into the hands of terrorists when you have more and more nuclear powers is a nightmare. And that’s the nightmare we hope to prevent.”
Nunn said recent reports that Iran is covertly attempting to develop nuclear capabilities suggest that nation is in clear violation of international treaties and has created tension around the globe. He also said Iran’s known links to terrorist groups pose a security threat to the United States, Russia and Europe.
“Even if they stop short of nuclear capacity in terms of weapons, but develop the ability to very rapidly produce nuclear weapons, it would alter the whole balance in the region,” Nunn said. “It would also encourage other countries to move forward with their own nuclear weapons.”
Nunn and Kilsyak said they hope a new arms reduction agreement between President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev forges a new path to the reduction of nuclear weapons in other countries. Obama and Medvedev are expected to cut their countries’ nuclear arsenals by a third when they sign the Strategic Arms Reduction Agreement or START on April 8.
“We have to have a long-term goal of reducing our own nuclear inventories and moving toward a nuclear-free world if we are going to get the support we need to deal with Iran and North Korea,” Nunn said.