Elsewhere in their statement, Raisi and Xi reiterated their firm support for the establishment of a Middle East free of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction. They highlighted the role of the NPT Review Conference in forcing Israel to join the treaty and placing all its nuclear facilities under the IAEA supervision.

(The Institute for National Security Studies; Tel Aviv University) INSS researcher Amb. Shimon Stein responds to remarks by INSS Managing Director Maj. Gen. (res.) Tamir Hayman on confronting the Iranian nuclear threat

Considering the difficulty of disrupting Iran’s drone program through economic sanctions and export controls, the United States would do well to adopt a new strategy.

This incisive article by William Arkin summarizes the key elements of America’s nuclear doctrine, formulated both before and in the immediate wake of September 11, 2001. […] The Bush administration, in a secret policy review completed early this year, has ordered the Pentagon to draft contingency plans for the use of nuclear weapons against at least seven countries, naming not only Russia and the “axis of evil”–Iraq, Iran, and North Korea–but also China, Libya and Syria. In addition, the U.S. Defense Department has been told to prepare for the possibility that nuclear weapons may be required in some future Arab-Israeli crisis. And, it is to develop plans for using nuclear weapons to retaliate against chemical or biological attacks, as well as “surprising military developments” of an unspecified nature.