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German FM urges removal of US atomic weapons from Germany

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Berlin, April 10, IRNA -- German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier called for the removal of all US nuclear weapons from Germany, the weekly Der Spiegel news magazine reported Friday.

"Today, these weapons are militarily obsolete," said Steinmeier, who is at odds with Chancellor Angela Merkel over the issue of continuing deployment of US nukes in Germany.

He voiced support for the withdrawal of US nuclear warheads from Germany.

"The disarmament of this weapon's category should be on the agenda at the planned US disarmament conference," added Steinmeier who is facing a fierce election battle for the chancellor's post this fall.

At least 20 US atomic warheads are reportedly deployed underground at the German air base in the southwestern town of Buechel where they can be mounted on German Tornado fighter planes.

Around 350 American nuclear warheads remain still in Europe, according to various press reports.

Up to 130 warheads had been initially stored at the US Ramstein air force base in southwestern Germany but the weekly Der Spiegel news magazine reported earlier that the arsenal was cleared during renovation work in 2005, and it was likely they were never returned to Germany.

According to a list handed out to US weapons inspectors, the arms may have been removed.

"I think it is fairly certain that they are gone," Hans M. Kristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists in Washington, D.C. was quoted saying in the German press.

"There are too many things which indicate that they are gone. This fits very nicely," he added.

The Federation of American Scientists, or FAS, conducts regular inspections of US nuclear facilities.

It periodically receives a list from the Air Force of bases to be inspected, and the latest list -- from January 2007 -- failed to include Ramstein, which was still included in 2005.

The German base in Buechel, remains on the list, along with bases in Belgium, Italy, Turkey, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

Neither the German defense ministry nor the Pentagon will discuss the status of those atomic bombs.

The Pentagon, as a rule, never comments on "the number or position of the US military's nuclear weapons."

But Kristensen maintained the list counted as evidence.

"This means that the weapons are gone," he said.

"They are not allowed to store weapons without this security process and no security process means they are gone ... That is the best evidence you can get in this business," Kristensen added.

During the Cold War, the number of US warheads based in Europe was in the thousands as the highest estimated number topped about 7,000 in 1971.