US-Iranian relations are clearly at a crossroad with the election of President Rouhani. As I have mentioned in earlier blog posts, Rouhani has sent several hopeful messages that have yet to be picked up by the US government. Not much of this oversight has been picked up by the US media, but the foreign press is well aware that an opportunity may be being wasted. Rami Khoury is a highly respected journalist for the Lebanese newspaper, the Daily Star. He has written a very blunt editorial which takes the Obama Administration to task for not following up on the olive branches extended by Rouhani.
There is evidence that North Korea may be expanding its nuclear enrichment facilities. We know very little about the North Korean program, other than it has been successful in developing a nuclear program. We also have good evidence that the North Koreans have cooperative arrangements with a number of other countries, notably Iran. The question of whether we should be concerned about the North Korean activity is a topic of great concern right now and two veteran observers weigh in on the question. Their analysis gives a good insight into how difficult the assessment process actually is.
Japan’s crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant is leaking 300 tons of radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean every day. The situation is clearly troubling, but there is little hard evidence to know how serious a crisis it may be. Some of the radioactive elements being released, like cesium, are relatively short-lived; others, like strontium, are longer-lived and eventually work its way into the bones of living creatures. Efforts to contain the leak have thus far been unsuccessful and there is no plan to stem the release that has a high degree of confidence.
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