Former President Jerry Rawlings

Rawlings rebukes US for threats to withdraw from nuclear treaty

Isaac Yeboah Politics Jan - 03 - 2019 , 19:09

Former Ghanaian President Jerry John Rawlings is accusing the United States of America of trying to play a hypocritical God by threatening to withdraw from its 1987 nuclear treaty with Russia.

The Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty, touted as a very key instrument in ending the Cold War, banned nuclear missiles with ranges of 500 to 5,500km and was signed by then US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General-Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev in Washington.

Current US President Donald Trump last October 2018, gave indications the US would withdraw from the treaty and proceed to produce the very type of missiles to protect itself, accusing his predecessor Barrack Obama of failing to take the needful step when Russia was itself side-stepping the treaty, an accusation Russia promptly rejected.

Trump’s threat to renounce the treaty was reported by major news networks, including The BBC, Financial Times, The Guardian, AlJazeera, and of course CNN.

Rawlings in a tweet Thursday, said “America is trying to play God and a hypocritical one at that”, for seeking to walk out on the nuclear disarmament treaty with Russia while expecting other countries threatened by the West and Israel to give up their legitimate right to also defend themselves.

“It does not make sense”, he says in the tweet, explaining that the implication for a US walk-away is that it has forfeited its moral authority to assert its influence over nuclear non-proliferation.