Feed aggregator

US President Barack Obama delivers his first major speech, stating a commitment to seek peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons, in front of thousands in Prague, Czech Republic, April 5, 2009. Credit: Official White House Photo by Pete Souza

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 12 2026 (IPS)

When the nuclear Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) between the US and Russia expired last week, it ended a historic era— but triggered widespread speculation about the future.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said “February 5 was a grave moment for international peace and security”.

For the first time in more than half a century, he pointed out, “we face a world without any binding limits on the strategic nuclear arsenals of the Russian Federation and the United States of America – the two States that possess the overwhelming majority of the global stockpile of nuclear weapons.”

US President Donald Trump dismissed the termination of the treaty rather sarcastically when he told the New York Times last month: “if it expires, it expires”—and denounced the expiring treaty as “a badly negotiated deal”.

“We will do a better agreement”, he promised, adding that China, which has one of the world’s fastest growing nuclear arsenals, “and other parties” should be part of any future treaty.

The Chinese, according to the Times, “have made clear they are not interested”.

Currently, the world’s nine nuclear powers are the US, UK, Russia, France and China—all permanent members of the Security Council—plus India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea.

Collectively, they possess an estimated 12,100 to 12,500 nuclear warheads, with Russia and the US owning nearly 90% of the total eve while all nine are actively modernizing their arsenals.

Jonathan Granoff, President, Global Security Institute told IPS the START Treaty should be extended at least a year by formal or informal means. Is that as good as obtaining a new treaty that would include China as the US administration wants? No.

“Is it as good as fulfilling legally required steps such as adherence to the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) unanimous ruling to negotiate the universal elimination of nuclear weapons or the fulfillment of the promise of nuclear disarmament embodied in Article 6 of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT)? No”.

However, argued Granoff, doing nothing is asserting that a modest threat reducing easily obtained step now should not be taken because there are better ways forward. A modest positive step is no impediment to moving in other desired manners.

Fully terminating START communicates to the entire world that the US and Russia are so diplomatically inept that they cannot be trusted to continue to hold the entire world hostage to annihilation by holding thousands of first-use-ready nuclear weapons over everyone’s heads without adequate reasonable restraint, said Granoff.

The arguments being put forth as to why nothing can be done are inadequate.

First, the US argues that a new arrangement, a new treaty, is needed to bring China into the fold of restraint, he said.

“A modest step of extending START for a year by mutual presidential decrees while new negotiations take place does not negate creating a new treaty that would include China.”

Second, the arguments used to rationalize the new arms race fail to consider the folly of producing more accurate, usable, and powerful nuclear weapons”, declared Granoff.

Guterres pointed out the dissolution of decades of achievement could not come at a worse time – the risk of a nuclear weapon being used is the highest in decades.

“Yet even in this moment of uncertainty, we must search for hope. This is an opportunity to reset and create an arms control regime fit for a rapidly evolving context.”

“I welcome that the Presidents of both States have made clear that they appreciate the destabilizing impact of a nuclear arms race and the need to prevent the return to a world of unchecked nuclear proliferation.

“The world now looks to the Russian Federation and the United States to translate words into action. I urge both States to return to the negotiating table without delay and to agree upon a successor framework that restores verifiable limits, reduces risks, and strengthens our common security’, said Guterres.

In a statement released last week, Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (PNND), a global network of legislators working to achieve a nuclear weapons-free world, said the importance of the New START treaty is hard to overstate.

“As other nuclear treaties have been abrogated in recent years, this was the only deal left with notification, inspection, verification and treaty compliance mechanisms between Russia and the US. Between them, they possess 87% of the world’s nuclear weapons.”

The demise of the treaty will bring a definitive and alarming end to nuclear restraint between the two powers. It may very well accelerate the global nuclear arms race, PNND warned.

This was one of the key reasons that on January 27, 2026, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists reset the Doomsday Clock to 85 Seconds to Midnight.

Last year, PNND Co-President Senator Markey introduced draft legislation into the US Senate urging the government to negotiate new post-START agreements with Russia and China. The legislation is supported by a number of other Senators and by a companion bill in the House of Representatives. But this seems to have fallen on deaf ears in the Trump Administration.

Granoff, providing a deeper analysis, told IPS the scientific data makes clear that a full-scale nuclear war between the US and Russia would annihilate humanity and that a limited nuclear exchange of less than 2% of the world’s arsenals would put around 5 million tons of soot into the stratosphere leading billions of deaths and the devastation of modern civilization everywhere.

“Realism reveals that the alleged need to duplicate the arsenals of adversary nations is not needed for deterrence. Realism also reveals that there is actually little to no meaningful difference between a nation having 600 (as China does now) or over 1400 deployed nuclear weapons, mirroring the US and Russia, or 30,000 nuclear weapons as Russia and the US each had at the height of the last arms race”.

“The reality is that devastation globally of a small portion of the world’s nuclear arsenals would be unambiguously unacceptable to any sane person. We could say that realism informs us that we have moved from Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) to Self-Assured Destruction (SAD). The fact is that if any of the 9 states with the weapons were to use several hundred nuclear weapons that nation itself would also be devastated. MAD today reveals a new acronym, SAD.”

Meanwhile, a posting in the US State Department website reads:

Treaty Structure: The Treaty between the United States of America and the Russian Federation on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms, also known as the New START Treaty, enhances U.S. national security by placing verifiable limits on all Russian deployed intercontinental-range nuclear weapons. The United States and the Russian Federation had agreed to extend the treaty through February 4, 2026.

Strategic Offensive Limits: The New START Treaty entered into force on February 5, 2011. Under the treaty, the United States and the Russian Federation had seven years to meet the treaty’s central limits on strategic offensive arms (by February 5, 2018) and are then obligated to maintain those limits for as long as the treaty remains in force.

Aggregate Limits

Both the United States and the Russian Federation met the central limits of the New START Treaty by February 5, 2018, and have stayed at or below them ever since. Those limits are:

• 700 deployed intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), deployed submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs), and deployed heavy bombers equipped for nuclear armaments;
• 1,550 nuclear warheads on deployed ICBMs, deployed SLBMs, and deployed heavy bombers equipped for nuclear armaments (each such heavy bomber is counted as one warhead toward this limit);
• 800 deployed and non-deployed ICBM launchers, SLBM launchers, and heavy bombers equipped for nuclear armaments.

This article is brought to you by IPS NORAM, in collaboration with INPS Japan and Soka Gakkai International, in consultative status with the UN’s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');  

Igor Alignon Boco, élu sur la liste du parti Union progressiste le renouveau (UP-R) aux élections communales du 11 janvier 2026, vient d'être nommé au cabinet du président de l'Assembléenationale. Cette nomination intervient
après sa démission lors de la première session ordinaire de l'année 2026 du conseil communal de Godomey.

Une première démission au sein du conseil communal d'Abomey-Calavi. Le chef d'arrondissement de Godomey, Igor Alognon, élu au terme des élections communales du 11 janvier 2026, ne siègera pas à la municipalité d'Abomey-Calavi. Il l'a annoncé lors des travaux de la première session ordinaire de l'année 2026, tenue à Godomey le lundi 9 février dernier.
Mais aux dernières nouvelles, le désormais ex CA de Godomey est promu au poste d'assistant du président de l'Assemblée nationale, Joseph Djogbénou. Sa nomination selon des sources concordantes, a été prononcée ce mercredi 11 février 2026.
Désormais absent au conseil communal, il sera remplacé par son suppléant, Nathanaël Koty.

F. A. A.

Un motocycliste roulant sans casque a brulé les feux tricolores à Porto-Novo ce mardi 10 février 2026. Arrêté et conduit au commissariat, la fouille des bagages qu'il avait sur lui ont révélé une quantité de 180 Kg de faux médicaments.

Un motocycliste roulant à vive allure sur une moto de marque Bajaj a été interpellé ce mardi 10 février 2026 à Porto-Novo. Et ce, pour avoir brulé les feux tricolores. Sans casque, il n'a pas cru devoir s'arrêter lorsque le feu est passé au rouge. L'équipe de contrôle qui veillait au contrôle à quelques mètres a procédé à son interpellation. Ayant vu les hommes en uniforme, il a tenté de fuir avant d'être rattrapé entre le carrefour Iré-Akari et le commissariat du premier arrondissement.
Conduit au commissariat, les fouilles des 5 sacs qu'il avait sur lui a permis de découvrir 180 kg de médicaments contrefaits. Interrogé, le suspect a déclaré que la marchandise provenait de la frontière d'Igolo et devait être livrée au parc Pobè à un apprenti chauffeur chargé de les acheminer vers le marché Dantokpa à Cotonou.
L'enquête ouverte a permis d'interpeller le chauffeur du mini-bus et son apprenti. Ils répondront de leur acte devant les autorités compétentes.

F. A. A.

Une délégation de la Direction générale des élections (DGE), du Sénégal était au siège de la Commission électorale nationale autonome (CENA), ce mercredi 11 février 2026, dans le cadre d'une visite de travail et de partage d'expériences.

La Direction générale des élections du Sénégal veut s'inspirer de l'exemple de la Commission électorale nationale autonome du Bénin. Une délégation de l'institution sénégalaise en charge de l'organisation des élections était au siège de la CENA ce mercredi 11 février 2026. La visite s'inscrit dans une dynamique de renforcement de la coopération institutionnelle entre les deux institutions en charge de l'organisation des élections.
Selon des sources proches de la CENA, elle vise à favoriser l'échange de bonnes pratiques en matière de gestion et de conduite des processus électoraux.
Les séances de travail avec la délégation sénégalaise, seront consacrées à l'organisation et au fonctionnement des organes de la CENA, à la dématérialisation du processus électoral, le financement public des partis politiques, ainsi qu'à d'autres thématiques liées à la gouvernance électorale.

F. A. A.

En cette fin de semaine, le temps change brutalement sur une grande partie du territoire national. L’Office national de la météorologie (ONM) maintient plusieurs bulletins […]

L’article Météo Algérie : vents violents et tempêtes de sable ce jeudi 12 février, plusieurs wilayas en alerte est apparu en premier sur .

Wer hat wie abgeschnitten? Hier findest du die Winterthur-Noten zur 0:3-Niederlage gegen den FCZ.

Wer hat wie abgeschnitten? Hier findest du die FCZ-Noten zum 3:0-Sieg gegen Winterthur.

Der FC St. Gallen schlägt YB mit 2:1. Wer hat dabei wie abgeschnitten? Hier gehts zu den Noten.

YB verliert gegen den FC St. Gallen 1:2. Wer hat dabei wie abgeschnitten? Hier gehts zu den Noten.

In Zusammenarbeit mit blue Sport präsentiert Blick die Highlights der Partie FC Zürich – FC Winterthur (3:0).

In Zusammenarbeit mit blue Sport präsentiert Blick die Highlights der Partie FC. St.Gallen – BSC Young Boys (2:1).

In Zusammenarbeit mit blue Sport präsentiert Blick die Highlights der Partie FC Lugano – Servette FC (1:1).

Franjo von Allmen gewinnt innert fünf Tagen drei Olympia-Goldmedaillen. Es spricht alles dafür, dass er auch in finanzieller Hinsicht der grosse Gewinner sein wird. Konkurrent Christof Innerhofer gibt Einblicke in die Finanzen eines Ski-Überfliegers.

Die NHL ist mit dabei, die Einsätze sind so hoch wie nie. Das Olympia-Turnier in Mailand ist ein Elchtest für Vize-Weltmeister Schweiz und Trainer Patrick Fischer.

Italienische Politiker schiessen nach der Brandkatastrophe von Crans-Montana gegen die Schweiz, währenddessen herrscht im Wallis Funkstille. Alt Ständerat Filippo Lombardi springt in die Bresche – und legt damit den Finger auf die auffällige Leerstelle.

Die Krankenkassenprämien sind die grösste Sorge der Bevölkerung. Trotzdem findet Felix Schneuwly, Schweizer könnten die hohen Prämien problemlos zahlen. SP und Caritas widersprechen dem überraschenden Resultat der Befragung.

Die Ex-Miss-Schweiz tritt in Heidi Klums Top-Show an. Im Trailer von ProSieben, der diese Woche startet, zeigt sie Laufsteg- und Shooting-Talent. Wie sie sich schlägt, erfährt man am Donnerstagabend.

Nach dem Inferno von Crans-Montana steht fest: Das fehlerhafte IT-System VS Fire führte zu Kontrollversäumnissen. Gemeinden schweigen, der Kanton weist jede Verantwortung von sich. Wie viele Gebäude sind noch betroffen?

Wer hat wie abgeschnitten? Hier findest du die Lugano-Noten zum 1:1-Unentschieden gegen Servette.

Wer hat wie abgeschnitten? Hier findest du die Servette-Noten zum 1:1-Unentschieden gegen Lugano.