WORT-FM Madison, WS, June 24, 2025:
Negin Owliaei and Zunes examine the U.S. war on Iran and its broader context. (55 mins.)
Category: Nuclear and Chemical Weapons
nuclear and chemical weapons
Interview: Israel, Iran and the U.S.
Santita Jackson Show Sunday, June 22, 2025 [Second Hour]
Also see Zunes’s Facebook notes on Iran, Israel and Palestine
Interview: CBS on US bombs Iran
CBS Bay Area affiliate KPIX June 22, 2025 [10 mins.]
Zunes argues why the action was unnecessary and what the implications for the future might be.
Interview: Why Israel Can’t Destroy Iran’s Nuclear Program: Conversation With Professor Zunes
Trump’s Dangerous Abrogation of the Iran Deal
The Progressive, May 9, 2018: Trump’s decision to pull the U.S. out of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action—the landmark nuclear agreement between Iran and the UK, France, Germany, Russia, China, and the U.S.—strikes a dangerous blow against arms control and international security and more firmly establishes the U.S. as a rogue nation.
History Shows Hypocrisy of US Outrage Over Chemical Weapons in Syria
Truthout April 24, 2018: There are serious legal and strategic concerns regarding the decision by the U.S., along with France and Great Britain, to bomb Syria in response to its alleged use of chemical weapons in Douma…
Why the United States Can’t Lead on Syria’s Chemical Weapons Atrocities
The Progressive April 11, 2018: The repeated use of these horrific and illegal weapons by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s repressive regime deserves a strong international response. Unfortunately, given its history of politicizing the issue, the U.S. is in no position to lead…
Syria: What You Need to Know
WORT-FM April 17, 2017 (57 mins.): Last week, Syria launched a chemical weapons attack, killing more than 80 people. President Trump responded with an ordered airstrike on a Syrian airbase. What led to this conflict? What participants are in play, and what do we need to know?
Why These Missile Strikes Won’t Make Things Better for the Syrian People
YES! Magazine, Common Dreams & Huffington Post April 7, 2017
The U.S. bombing of Syria’s Al Shayrat air base has brought more death and destruction to that country and is unlikely to deter additional war crimes by the Syrian regime. It will not ease the suffering of the Syrian people. But then it wasn’t actually meant to.
Trump Alludes To Force In Responding To Syria Chemical Attack
Interview: Commentary on the OPCW and the Nobel Peace Prize
Institute for Public Accuracy October 27, 2013
Nobel Prize for OPCW: Examining Both Organizations,
Institute for Public Accuracy October 11, 2013
STEPHEN ZUNES, Professor of politics and chair of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of San Francisco, wrote the piece “The U.S. and Chemical Weapons: No Leg to Stand On.”Syria and the likely disastrous consequences that would have resulted.”
Interview: Chemical Weapons Watchdog Wins Nobel Peace Prize as U.S. Opposes Calls for WMD-Free Middle East (Video)
Democracy Now October 11, 2013; Video & Transcript
As the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons wins the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize, we look at international efforts to rid Syria and other countries — including the United States — of chemical weapons. Transcript
Despite Horrific Repression, the U.S. Should Stay Out of Syria
Foreign Policy In Focus/Institute for Policy Studies May15, 2013
[Republished by Common Dreams, Huffington Post and Truthout]
The desperate desire to “do something” has led to increasing calls for the U.S. to provide military aid to armed insurgents or even engage in direct military intervention…
The U.S. and Chemical Weapons: No Leg to Stand On
Foreign Policy In Focus/Institute for Policy Studies, May 2, 2013
[Republished by Alternet, Ander Niews Week (Netherlands), Common Dreams, Greanville Post, Huffington Post and the Middle East Institute]
Syria and Chemical Weapons (audio)
The source link and recording for this item are no longer available. Find best related links.
Syrian Government and Rebels Up the Ante, While US Raises Implications of Chemical Weapons (audio)
Uprising Radio December 10, 2012. The source link and recording for this item are no longer available. Find best related links.
Answering Obama’s UN Address
September 30, 2011. Source is no longer available.
Although his September 21 address before the UN General Assembly contained a number of positive elements, in many ways it also contained many of the same kind of duplicitous and misleading statements one would have expected from his predecessor. Excerpts below…
The U.S. Attack on Syria: Implications for the Next Administration
Huffington Post, Jan 7, 2009 The raid by U.S. forces into Syria in late October was not only a major breach of international law, but has resulted in serious diplomatic repercussions which will likely harm U.S. strategic interests in the region. On October 25, four U.S. Army helicopters entered Syrian airspace from Iraq, firing upon laborers at the Sukkariyeh Farm near the town of Abu Kamal; two of the helicopters landed and eight commandoes reportedly stormed a building. By the time it was over, eight people had been killed… [source]
El-Baradei and the IAEA’s Nobel Peace Prize a Mixed Blessing
Foreign Policy In Focus, December 12, 2005
By John Gershman, Stephen Zunes [source]
My reaction to the awarding this past weekend of the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize to the International Atomic Energy Agency and its director Mohammed El-Baradei was similar to my reaction to the awarding of the 2002 prize to former President Jimmy Carter: while they have pursued a number of policies contrary to the spirit of the Nobel Peace Prize, they have also done much to make the world a safer place. On the one hand, the IAEA has helped to promote nuclear energy, an extremely dangerous, expensive, and unnecessary means of electrical generation, and has been accused of downplaying the serious health and environmental impact of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster and essentially being a shill of the nuclear energy…
The Release of Mordechai Vanunu and U.S. Complicity in the Development of Israel’s Nuclear Arsenal
Foreign Policy In Focus, Oct. 2, 2005
By John Gershman & Stephen Zunes [source]
The recent release on April 22 of Mordechai Vanunu from an Israeli prison provides an opportunity to challenge the U.S. policy of supporting Israel ’s development of nuclear weapons while threatening war against other Middle Eastern states for simply having the potential for developing such weaponry. Vanunu, a nuclear technician at Israel ’s Dimona nuclear plant, passed along photographs he had taken inside the plant to the Sunday Times of London in 1986. His evidence demonstrated that Israel had developed up to two hundred nuclear weapons of a highly advanced design, making it the world’s sixth-largest nuclear power…