Headlines:
US-Iran Talks Resume
China’s Expanding Nuclear Capability
Violence in Tripura

US-Iran Talks Resume

Iran has said the US should provide guarantees that it would not withdraw from the nuclear deal again if the agreement is restored. Indirect negotiations to revive the JCPOA are set to resume on November 29th in Vienna after a long pause. “The US should show that it has the capability and will to provide guarantees that it will not abandon the deal again if the talks to revive the deal succeed,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said. It was the US that unilaterally withdrew from the JCPOA in 2018 by imposing sanctions, despite the concessions Iran gave to make good on the deal.  Khatibzadeh also called on the Biden administration to lift sanctions and drop the Trump administration’s policy, known as the “maximum pressure campaign” against Iran. He said “nothing will change in Vienna” if this hard-line stance again Iran continues. What Iran’s clerics have not learnt since they took power back in 1979 is that the US has used talks, sanctions and concessions as a way to control and get Iran to achieve its interests in the region. Until Iran realises this will just go in circles from sanctions to talks.

China’s Expanding Nuclear Capability

China is expanding its nuclear force much faster than US officials predicted just a year ago, highlighting a broad and accelerating build-up of military muscle designed to enable Beijing to match or surpass US global power by mid-century, according to a Pentagon report released Wednesday, 27 October. The number of Chinese nuclear warheads could increase to 700 within six years, the report said, and may top 1,000 by 2030. The report did not say how many weapons China has today, but a year ago the Pentagon said the number was in the “low 200s” and was likely to double by the end of this decade. China’s military modernisation is proceeding on all fronts, but its nuclear advances are especially notable. It has developed numerous missile fields with dozens of silos across the country. China’s growing military might is closing towards the possibility of invading Taiwan. The US nuclear inventory far exceeds China’s at over 3,750, but China’s nuclear weapons at a mere 300 is a threat to global peace.

Violence in Tripura

Tensions have increased in India’s north-eastern state of Tripura following attacks on mosques and properties owned by Muslims. The string of attacks targeting mosques has triggered fears and anxiety among Tripura’s Muslim minority.  Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), and other local groups had taken out protest rallies in Tripura and attacked Muslims and their religious places, including mosques. The VHP is affiliated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological fountainhead of India’s Hindu supremacist groups which seeks to convert India into an ethnic Hindu state. Muslims make up less than 9% of Tripura’s 4.2 million population. Tripura is encircled on three sides by Bangladesh and connected by a thin corridor to the neighbouring state of Assam. The state has been run by India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) since 2018 after 25 years of Communist rule. The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) said it was alarmed by reports of violence against Muslims in Tripura and urged the Indian government to prevent the attacks.