Islam Times - Retired admiral urges US to keep nukes in Europe for Russia

Islam Times - A retired US Navy admiral says the United States should keep its nuclear weapons in European countries in the wake of Russian activities in Ukraine.

"Withdrawing our relatively few weapons would be the absolute wrong signal at this moment," former NATO chief James Stavridis said.

The United States and Russia last year agreed to reduce their tactical nuclear weapons, but the deal is unlikely to complete after the recent tensions between the two countries over the crisis in Ukraine.

The US military has roughly 200 B61 nuclear bombs and it has deployed them in five NATO countries stretching from the Netherlands to Turkey.

"Throughout my period of command as the NATO supreme allied commander, my personal view was that it was time to consider withdrawing the weapons from Europe," Stavridis was quoted as saying by Stars and Stripes.

"However, given Russian activities of the past months and the potential for a return to a period of significant friction between Russia and the alliance, I now believe we should keep the weapons in Europe, despite the costs and risks associated with doing so," he added.

Washington has imposed economic sanctions against Moscow, accusing the country of supporting pro-Russian forces fighting in Ukraine.

In an interview with Press TV on Sunday, Jeff Steinberg from the Executive Intelligence Review said the adversarial policies of the US and the European Union against Russia, including the threat of more sanctions, is directed at “demonizing” Moscow and will ultimately result in another global conflict.

Steinberg said the policies by Washington, London and NATO are “needlessly driving the world to a confrontation.”