U.S Withdraws From INF Treaty With Russia As UN Warns Of Nuclear War

The United States has formally pulled out from a major nuclear treaty with Russia amidst allegations of a breach of the deal by the latter.

The U.S had signed what was known as the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) under the tenure of US President Ronald Reagan with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987.

The deal required the U.S and the Soviet Union to eliminate and permanently give up all of their nuclear and conventional ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of 500 to 5,500 kilometers.

But following allegation that Russia was breaching the deal by deploying new type of missile, the U.S on Friday withdrew from the pact.

The allegations against Russia had been made earlier this year by the US and Nato.

“Russia is solely responsible for the treaty’s demise,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement on Friday.

“With the full support of our Nato allies, the United States has determined Russia to be in material breach of the treaty, and has subsequently suspended our obligations under the treaty,” he added.

The development has also been confirmed by Russia’s foreign ministry, which described the INF treaty as “formally dead”.

Implication of INF Treaty’s Collapse

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres had warned of “an invaluable brake on nuclear war” should the treaty be jettisoned.

“This will likely heighten, not reduce, the threat posed by ballistic missiles,” he added, urging all parties to “seek agreement on a new common path for international arms control”.

“Now that the treaty is over, we will see the development and deployment of new weapons,” Pavel Felgenhauer, a Russian military analyst, told AFP news agency. “Russia is already ready.”