����ֱ��

MOSCOW/WASHINGTON: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday offered to voluntarily maintain the limits on deployed strategic nuclear weapons set in the 2010 New START accord after it expires in February if the US agreed to do the same.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Putin’s proposal sounded “pretty good,” but she added that US President Donald Trump would address the offer himself. The agreement is the last US-Russia strategic nuclear arms control accord.

It allowed for only one five-year extension, which Putin and former US President Joe Biden agreed to implement in 2021. The offer, which comes as Ukraine tries to convince Trump to impose harsher sanctions on Russia, was made public by Putin at a meeting of his Security Council.

“Russia is prepared to continue adhering to the central numerical limits under the New START Treaty for one year after February 5, 2026,” he said.
“Subsequently, based on an analysis of the situation, we will make a decision on whether to maintain these voluntary, self-imposed restrictions.” Trump in July said he would like to maintain the limits on deployed strategic nuclear weapons set in the 2010 New START pact after it expires on February 5. Russia and the United States have by far the biggest nuclear arsenals in the world, and many experts fear that ending the limits could fuel an arms race as both sides boost strategic weapons deployments. The treaty caps the number of deployed strategic nuclear warheads at 1,550 and the number of delivery vehicles — missiles, submarines and bombers — at 700 on each side.

PUTIN UNDER PRESSURE TO END UKRAINE WAR
Putin said his proposal was in the interests of global non-proliferation and could help spur dialogue with Washington about arms control.
“This measure will only be viable if the United States acts in a similar manner, and does not take steps that undermine or violate the existing balance of deterrence capabilities,” Putin said. He has been under pressure from Trump to agree to end the war in Ukraine, something Moscow says is part of a slew of security issues that have raised East-West tensions to their most dangerous level since the Cold War.
The proposal appears to be a unilateral change of policy by Moscow, which has until now insisted it would only engage with Washington on such matters if overall ties — hampered by stark differences over the war in Ukraine — improved.

TALKS ON OVERHAULING TREATY YET TO START
Differences over Ukraine mean the two superpowers have not started talks on renewing or overhauling the treaty, though Trump has spoken of his desire to do a new nuclear arms control deal, albeit with China as well.
Beijing has rejected the idea that it should be included.
Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association advocacy group, said Putin’s offer was “a positive and welcome move.”
Urging Washington to reciprocate, Kimball said Trump and Putin could “help reduce the most immediate existential security threat facing the world.”
Putin said Russia would be monitoring US nuclear arms and defense activity, paying particular attention to plans to beef up missile defenses and proposals to deploy missile interceptors in space.
“The practical implementation of such destabilising actions could nullify our efforts to maintain the status quo in the field of START,” said Putin. “We will respond accordingly.”
Konstantin Kosachyov, a senior Russian senator, said Putin was sending a message to the US that he was ready to enter talks on a new arms control treaty.
“I hope that this signal will be heard and correctly interpreted,” Kosachyov said on Telegram. 

LONDON: Palestinians marked the announcement of the UK government’s formal recognition of the State of Palestine with a flag-hoisting ceremony attended by senior UK officials, members of Parliament, ambassadors, and members of the Palestinian community on Monday.

The official ceremony in the London borough of Hammersmith featured a speech by Husam Zomlot, the Palestinian ambassador, outside the Palestine Mission to the UK, soon to be upgraded into an embassy.

“In the same capital of the Balfour Declaration, after more than a century of ongoing denial, dispossession and erasure, the UK government has finally taken the long overdue step of recognizing the State of Palestine,” Zomlot began his speech.

Palestine, a former British colony for nearly 30 years, was never recognized when the mandate ended, despite the UK’s recognition of the fledgling State of Israel in 1950, an entity that was envisioned in the Balfour Declaration of 1917, which promised to establish a homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine.

This moment stands as a defiant act of truth, a refusal to let genocide be the final word; a refusal to accept that occupation is permanent

Husam Zomlot, Palestinian ambassador

The historic and long-awaited decision was announced on Sunday by Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who described it as “a pledge to the Palestinian and Israeli people that there can be a better future.”

It marks a shift in policy in the UK and some European countries, which have long stated that recognizing Palestine will occur only at the conclusion of peace negotiations. Hamas attacks in October 2023, followed by an ongoing campaign of vengeance by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip, signaled to Starmer that “the hope for a two-state solution is fading.”

Zomlot said that British recognition comes at a critical time of “unimaginable pain and suffering” for Palestinians, a population of 5.5 million in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

Since August, Israeli forces have conducted a demolition campaign targeting high-rise buildings in Gaza City, continuing nearly two years of assaults on the coastal enclave, where over 65,000 people have been killed. Officials from the UN and the EU, along with the mayor of London, have recently described Israeli actions in Gaza as genocide. In the West Bank, the Israeli government announced its approval of the E1 settlement, which would divide the territory in half and severely undermine any hope for a Palestinian state.

“It comes as our people in Gaza are being starved, bombed, and buried under the rubble of their homes; as our people in the West Bank are being ethnically cleansed, brutalized by daily state-sponsored terrorism, land theft and suffocating oppression,” Zomlot said.

Palestinians hope that the UK’s recognition will be more than merely “symbolic” and will contribute to a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that has embroiled the Middle East since 1948.

The UK, a permanent member of the Security Council and a G7 country, joined Canada, Australia, and Portugal on Sunday in recognizing Palestinian statehood, while France is expected to follow suit this week at the UN General Assembly.

“This moment stands as a defiant act of truth, a refusal to let genocide be the final word; a refusal to accept that occupation is permanent; a refusal to be erased and a refusal to be dehumanized,” Zomlot said.

“(It is) righting historic wrongs and committing together to a future based on freedom, dignity and fundamental human rights.”

A defining moment in securing self-determination for Palestine and peace through a two-state solution

John Swinney, Scotland’s first minister

The impassioned speech quoted the famous lines, “On This Land, There Are Reasons to Live,” a poem by the national poet Mahmoud Darwish.

“Please join me as we raise the flag of Palestine with its colors representing our nation: black for our mourning, white for our hope, green for our land and red for the sacrifices of our people,” Zomlot concluded.

John Swinney, the first minister of Scotland, attended the event along with former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. Swinney wrote on X that it was “a defining moment in securing self-determination for Palestine and peace through a two-state solution.”

Corbyn, an independent MP, congratulated those “who have tirelessly campaigned for the recognition of Palestine,” which he described as an “inalienable right” of the Palestinian people, in a post on the X platform.

He called on the UK government to “recognize the genocide in Gaza, end its complicity in crimes against humanity, and stop arming Israel.”

����ֱ�� and France are co-hosting a one-day event at the UN in New York this week to advance the two-state solution, as more countries are expected to recognize the State of Palestine.

The long road to Palestinian statehood

An Arab News Deep Dive

Enter

keywords