President Barack Obama welcomed delegates from 47 nations to Tuesday’s session of the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, D.C., with a tribute to the Polish representatives in attendance and a moment of silence for their loss before striking a note of warning about the very real threat of nuclear terrorism that exists today, which the president called “a cruel irony of history” following the end of the Cold War. —KA
AP via Google News:
“Terrorist networks such as al-Qaida have tried to acquire the material for a nuclear weapon, and if they ever succeeded, they would surely use it,” he told the opening session, which convened under tight security at the Washington Convention Center. “Were they to do so, it would be a catastrophe for the world, causing extraordinary loss of life and striking a major blow to global peace and stability.”
Lurking in the background at the nuclear security summit was a problem some see as equally worrisome: Iran’s alleged pursuit of a nuclear weapon. Iran, which was not invited to the conference, denies it intends to build an atomic bomb, and despite widespread concern about Iranian intentions, Obama is having difficulty getting agreement on a new set of U.N. sanctions against the country.