Barack Obama pledges to limit nuclear attacks

Barack Obama has pledged not to use nuclear weapons against a non-nuclear country that has signed up to international treaties even if that country attacks the America with biological or chemical weapons.

President Obama’s radical overhaul of American strategic policy announced abandoned the deliberate ambiguity surrounding the nuclear deterrent. Rather than resorting to early use of nuclear weapons, US policy will now be more likely to involve “a series of graded options” in response to any lesser attack.

The Nuclear Posture Review warned countries breaking the rules – including Iran and North Korea – remained potential targets.

Mr Obama stopped short of making a “no first use” of nuclear weapons pledge – a key demand of many disarmament activists – but approved a new policy which lays down that the US would “only consider the use of nuclear weapons in extreme circumstances to defend the vital interests of the United States or its allies and partners”.

He vowed “to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in our national security strategy and focus on reducing the nuclear dangers of the 21st century” while at the same time promising “a safe, secure and effective nuclear deterrent for the United States and our allies and partners as long as nuclear weapons exist”.

Whereas President George W. Bush – like his predecessors – reserved the right to use nuclear weapons “to deter a wide range of threats” including banned chemical and biological weapons and large-scale conventional attacks, Mr Obama decided to change this as part of his drive towards a “nuclear-free world”.

Mr Obama said the US would only respond with nuclear weapons if an attack was by a nuclear state, or a non-signatory or violator of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. He hopes that the US move will strengthen American arguments that other countries should either reduce stockpiles of nuclear weapons or decide not to develop them.

The review of nuclear weapons policy is the first since 2001 and only the third since the end of the Cold War two decades ago. Its release was delayed for several months because of splits within the Obama administration Robert Gates, the Pentagon chief and a former member of the Bush administration who served in several national positions during the Cold War, is believed to have resisted the new pledge on non-use of nuclear weapons.

Senior officials said that the new strategy was the product of 150 meetings, including 30 convened by the White House National Security Council and that even Mr Obama had personally intervened to resolve disputes.

The White House also urged Russia to begin talks on adopting first-ever limits on shorter-range nuclear weapons. These would be follow-on negotiations to the newly completed “New START” treaty reducing long-range nuclear weapons, due to be signed by Obama and President Dmitry Medvedev of Russia in Prague on Thursday.

Mr Obama said on the eve of the announcement that he wanted to “make sure that our conventional weapons capability is an effective deterrent in all but the most extreme circumstances”. He added in an interview with the New York Times: “We are going to want to make sure that we can continue to move towards less emphasis on nuclear weapons.”

But he insisted: “I’m going to preserve all the tools that are necessary in order to make sure that the American people are safe and secure.”

White House officials said the new strategy, called the Nuclear Posture Review, would include the option of reconsidering the use of nuclear retaliation against a biological attack if a country developed a capability that made the United States vulnerable to a devastating strike.

The announcement opened a frenetic nine days of nuclear diplomacy aimed at making major progress towards reducing weapons. After the signing ceremony in Prague, Mr Obama will next week host 47 world leaders in Washington for a summit on nuclear security.

Bates Gill, head of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, welcomed the new policy as evidence that Mr Obama was “making good on his commitment to work towards a world without nuclear weapons”.

He lamented that the absence of a “no first use” declaration but said: “By deciding not to pursue new nuclear weapons, the US will forego next-generation weapons and the expansion of missions which such new weapons might fill.”

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