US Senate approves New START

US Minuteman nuclear missile (file photo)

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/156719.html


The US Senate has approved an arms control treaty, known as New START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty), with Russia that aims at reducing nuclear weapons in both countries.

The Senate, presided over by Vice President Joe Biden, obtained the necessary two-thirds vote after 13 Republicans and two independents voted in favor of the new strategic arms reduction treaty, giving the Democrats a political victory. The treaty was ratified by a vote of 71 to 26.

But the accord, passed Wednesday, after months of delay, has still to be approved by the Russian parliament, a move expected next spring, reports said.

The New START will pave the way for new cuts in American and Russian nuclear warheads by some 30% - to 1,550 - from a limit set eight years ago.

The treaty would also allow each side visually to inspect the other's nuclear capability, with the aim of verifying how many warheads each missile carries.

The treaty, which will replace its lapsed predecessor, START, was signed by President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, in April 2010.

The treaty gives Obama a major foreign policy success in the closing hours of the outgoing session of the current Congress, who argued that ratification of New START was vital to US national security.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had previously warned that the treaty would be scrapped if Republicans succeeded in altering its form from the document signed in April.