SpaceDaily.com reports: “More than 5,000 nuclear weapons are deployed around the world and nuclear powers continue investing in new weapon systems, making meaningful disarmament in the near future unlikely, a report.

‘More than 5,000 nuclear weapons are deployed and ready for use, including nearly 2,000 that are kept in a high state of alert,’ according to a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

SIPRI’s report said the world’s eight nuclear powers — Britain, China, France, India, Israel, Pakistan, Russia and the US — possess more than 20,500 warheads.

As of January 2011, Russia had 11,000 nuclear warheads, including 2,427 deployed, while the United States had 8,500 including 2,150 deployed, the report said.

The US and Russia have signed a Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) that calls for a maximum of 1,550 warheads deployed per country.

However SIPRI argued that prospects for meaningful disarmament in the short term are grim as all eight countries seem committed to either improving or maintaining their nuclear programmes.

‘The five legally recognised nuclear weapons states, as defined by the 1968 Non-Proliferation Treaty are either deploying new nuclear weapon systems or have announced their intention to do so,’ the report said, referring to Britain, China, France, Russia and the US.

India and Pakistan are ‘expanding their capacity to produce fissile material for military purposes,’ according to the report…” (A nuclear holocaust is on the horizon – see Psalm 97:3; Isaiah 66:15; Ezekiel 39:6; Joel 2:3, 30; Zephaniah 1:18; Malachi 4:1; Revelation 8:7; 9:18. See also the next two articles.)

The Jerusalem Post reports: “The UN atomic watchdog has received further information regarding activities that ‘seem to point to the existence’ of possible military dimensions to Iran’s nuclear program, the agency’s head said.

‘There are indications that certain of these activities may have continued until recently,’ Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said in a speech to the agency’s 35-nation governing board.

Amano’s statement underlined the UN body’s concern that the Islamic Republic may be working to develop a nuclear-armed missile. Tehran rejects such suspicions, saying its nuclear program has only civilian aims, mainly generating electricity.

Amano did not disclose the source of the new information.

For several years, the IAEA has been investigating Western intelligence reports indicating Iran had coordinated efforts to process uranium, test explosives at high altitude and revamp a ballistic missile cone so it can take a nuclear warhead.

Amano said he had written last month to the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani, ‘reiterating the agency’s concerns about the existence of possible military dimensions.’

He had also asked for Iran to ‘provide prompt access’ to locations, equipment, documentation and officials to help clarify the agency’s queries…” (Iran joins Russia in an atomic attempt to destroy every Jew – Ezekiel 38, 39 and Ezekiel 38:5. The Persia in this text changed its name to Iran in 1935. See the next two articles.)

Haaretz reports: “Iran’s announcement that it plans to triple its production of higher-grade uranium is another ‘brazen’ example of Tehran’s defiance of its international obligations, a senior U.S. official said.

Speaking at an International Atomic Energy Agency meeting in Vienna, Washington’s envoy Glyn Davies said the plan was Iran’s ‘most recent brazen example of its deepening non-compliance.’

The European Union also voiced deep concern over Iran’s announcement it would increase its capacity to produce higher-grade enriched uranium, saying Tehran was increasing its defiance of the UN Security Council.

The 27-nation EU, in a statement read out by Hungary’s ambassador at a board meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said it noted with ‘grave concern’ Iran’s lack of cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog.

‘We note with particular concern the announcement made only today by Iran that it will increase its capacity to enrich (uranium) to 20 percent, thereby further exacerbating its defiance of the United Nations Security Council.’

Iran said earlier it would shift its production of higher grade uranium to an underground bunker and triple its production capacity, an announcement certain to add to Western concern about the Islamic state’s atomic ambitions.

Iran says it needs 20 percent enriched uranium to fuel a Tehran research reactor making medical isotopes for cancer treatment. But the West is worried because it brings Iran closer to the 90 percent purity level needed to make atomic bombs…”