President Obama Calls for End Nuclear Weapons – Worldwide

Speaking in Prague yesterday, President Barack Obama called for the elimination of all nuclear weapons...worldwide. The broad, sweeping sentiments are a signal from the Obama administration to would-be atomic powers Iran and North Korea that the U.S. is serious about stewarding in an era of worldwide denuclearization. Obama noted Friday that he wished to lay out a specific plan to secure the loose and "rogue" nuclear materials around the world and to try to cease the spread of illegal weapons. He also noted that his overall agenda was "to seek the goal of a world without nuclear weapons."

Obama went on to say that, "Even with the Cold War over, the spread of nuclear weapons or the theft of nuclear material could lead to the extermination of any city on the planet." It is clear from his past statements while in the U.S. Senate and now as president that Obama wishes to aggressively pursue global denuclearization. Said White House Deputy National Security Adviser Denis McDonough, "The president has been very focused on these issues of proliferation for many years."

McDonough went on to say on Saturday evening that, "Tomorrow, I think you’ll hear the president, in a very comprehensive way, outline many of the things that he’s been talking about and working on for some time." Together, Obama and McDonough will try to seek a revival of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), a treaty ratified in 1970 that features steps toward denuclearization and forbids non-nuclear nations and states from attempting to acquire such weapons.