The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) expressed concern on Monday over the United States’ announcement that it will develop a new generation of nuclear weapons, warning that its potential destructive power would be 24 times greater than that of the bomb which created 140,000 nuclear weapons. deaths in Hiroshima (Japan) in 1945.

The new B61-13 bomb, details of which the Pentagon announced last week, “is an irresponsible escalation in the new arms race,” ICAN director Melissa Parke said in a statement.

“Announcing these plans amid conflicts in Europe and the Middle East involving countries with nuclear weapons (Russia and Israel) is an arrogant act in light of efforts to ensure that these weapons of mass destruction are not reused.” , he added. .

In the official note, the organization that awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017 describes that the new bomb that the US military will develop – if it receives the necessary authorization from Congress – It will have a force of 360 kilotons, compared to the 16 that exploded over Hiroshima 78 years ago.

ICAN also recalled that another nuclear weapon included in US defense modernization plans, the B61-12, is already deployed at NATO bases in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey.

“We demand that Washington cancel these modernization programs and instead fulfill its obligations to the Non-Proliferation Treaty by initiating nuclear disarmament talks,” Parke added.

The use of these types of weapons, the executive director recalled, “would entail indiscriminate killings of civilians and the destruction of critical civilian infrastructure, events that would constitute war crimes.”. (JO)