The British government is preparing to scrap the country's entire arsenal of cluster bombs in the face of a growing clamor against weapons that have killed and maimed hundreds of innocent civilians.
UK officials are paving the way for the unexpected step at talks in Dublin on an international treaty aimed at a worldwide ban on the bombs.
Well-placed sources made it clear on Tuesday that despite opposition from the military, the government is prepared to get rid of the cluster munitions in Britain’s armory: the lsraeli-designed M85 artillery weapon used during the 2003 invasion of Iraq and in attacks on Lebanon two years ago; and the M73, part of a weapons system for Apache helicopters.
“The prime minister is very much behind this process and wants us to sign [the treaty],” a senior Foreign Office source said on Tuesday.
Ireland, which is chairing the talks, wants a treaty text to be adopted tonight.
“If we sign up to the treaty we will lose the M85 and the M73,” the source said.
While the government appears happy for British forces to get rid of their M85 weapons immediately, it wants a “phasing out period” for its M73s.
The agreement, which was expected to be confirmed yesterday, ends a long-running dispute which has pitted the Ministry of Defence against the Foreign Office and Department for International Development. The ministry says the number of cluster bombs in the armory is “operationally sensitive” but concedes that decommissioning them will cost tens of millions of pounds.
Participants in the talks were still embroiled on Tuesday in the question of whether troops from countries who sign up to the ban could go on operations with those, notably the US, that do not.
Preventing them from doing so could lead to breaches in other treaty commitments, notably involving NATO, and would have serious practical implications, British officials said. The government also wants to allow the US to stockpile cluster weapons at US bases in the UK.
Pressure would be applied on the US not to use its cluster weapons in joint operations with countries that had banned them, officials suggest.
Cluster weapons are highly controversial because they scatter small “bomblets” over a wide area. Many of them do not explode on impact and are activated later by civilians. They caused more than 200 civilian casualties in the year after the Lebanon ceasefire, and more civilian casualties in Iraq in 2003 and Kosovo in 1999 than any other weapon system.
Also See: UK more worried about US than bombs
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS