WASHINGTON: The US plans to test two nuclear-capable Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) on September 22 and 26, ignoring the significance of these dates as world will observe the international peace day and a high-level meeting on nuclear disarmament is scheduled at the UN headquarters in New York on the same dates.
“Instead of honoring the significance of these dates and working in good faith to achieve nuclear disarmament, the United States has chosen to schedule two tests of its Minuteman III Intercontinental Ballistic Missile on September 22 and September 26,” Rick Wayman of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation said.
“We are disappointed that a test launch is scheduled for the same day as the high-level meeting on nuclear disarmament at the UN in New York,” Wayman said.
“These missiles are designed to carry nuclear warheads capable of killing thousands of times more people than the chemical weapons used in Syria,” he pointed out.
On the other hand, the US has accused the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime of using chemical weapons in an attack near capital Damascus on August 21 that killed hundreds of people.