US News

Obama to release nuclear strategy review

Apr 6, 2010, 12:58 GMT

US President Barack Obama reads Dr. Suess\' \'Green Eggs and Ham\' on the South Lawn during the White House Easter Egg Roll in Washington, DC, USA, on 05 April 2010. EPA/ROGER L. WOLLENBERG / POOL UPI

   Washington - President Barack Obama was expected to announce massive cuts to the United States' nuclear arsenal Tuesday when he releases a much-anticipated review of nuclear arms strategy.

   The Nuclear Posture Review is required by Congress to be completed once by every US administration and is to be issued one day before Obama heads to Prague to sign a new nuclear-arms-reduction treaty with Russia.

   Obama's review was expected to be watched closely after the president last year in Prague laid out his vision of a nuclear-free world, a goal that helped win him the Nobel Peace Prize.

   Obama was expected to permanently cut thousands of weapons from the country's nuclear arsenal, The New York Times reported last month. The new treaty to be signed with Russia already calls on both sides to reduce their nuclear warheads to 1,550, or about one-third below current levels.

   The White House has been mulling whether to begin withdrawing tactical nuclear warheads based in European countries, including Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Turkey, the Times reported.

   In the review, Obama's government is to clarify the purpose of remaining US nuclear weapons as fundamentally for deterrence, The Washington Post reported, citing unnamed officials.

   The new policy was also to renounce the US development of any new nuclear weapons.

   It would rule out using nuclear arms against most non-nuclear countries. Previously, nuclear retaliation remained an option in response to chemical or biological attacks.

   An exception would remain for a possible nuclear attack in response to provocations by countries that are not in compliance with non-proliferation treaties.

   In an interview Monday with The New York Times, published early Tuesday on the paper's website, Obama said outright that the loophole would apply to 'outliers like Iran and North Korea.'

   The review's release is coming as Obama prepares to host about 40 world leaders next week in Washington for a two-day summit on safeguarding nuclear weapons. A separate United Nations summit in May is to review the global nuclear non-proliferation pact.