WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th January, 2019) The United States' decisions to withdraw from the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) and the Iran nuclear agreement represent dangerous steps towards dismantling arms control, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists said in a report on Thursday.
"In the nuclear realm, the United States abandoned the Iran nuclear deal and announced it would withdraw from the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), grave steps towards a complete dismantlement of the global arms control process," the US-based advocacy group said.
The group also said that recent US and Russian military doctrines have eroded the long-held moratorium on the use of nuclear weapons.
The scientists acknowledged that last year the United States and North Korea moved away from dangerous rhetoric and were able to start a new negotiations process, however, the nuclear crisis remains unresolved.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists held its symbolic Doomsday Clock at two minutes to "nuclear" midnight. This is the closest mark to apocalypse, the report said.
"Though unchanged from 2018, this setting should be taken not as a sign of stability but as a stark warning to leaders and citizens around the world," the report added.
The advocacy group has published its opinions in the report since the 1945 US bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki ended World War II.
The Trump Administration said the United States will exit the INF Treaty over alleged Russian violations unless Moscow comes into compliance by February 2. Moscow has refuted the allegations and has complained that launchers on US defense systems in Europe are capable of firing cruise missiles at ranges that are banned by the agreement.
The INF Treaty was signed in 1987 by then leader of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev and then US President Ronald Reagan. The leaders agreed to destroy all cruise or ground-launched ballistic missiles with ranges between 500 and 5,500 kilometers (310 and 3,400 miles).
