Russian Expert Warns US Against Using Nuke Weapons in Afghanistan

It is absolutely inadmissible if the US uses nuclear weapons in contemporary conditions against Taliban-controlled Afghanistan as a reprisal for last week 's terror attacks in the U.S., a top Russian ecologist said Wednesday.

Commenting on unofficial American reports that Washington could use tactical nuclear weapons in Afghanistan in retaliation for the terrorist attacks, Viktora Danilov-Danilian, leader of the Russian Ecological Union, told reporters here that such a step "would be actually a signal to drop nuclear bombs for whoever can get them."

The scientist recalled that nuclear weapons have not been used since the U.S. dropped nuclear bombs on Japan's Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. "The treaty banning nuclear tests in the atmosphere, outer space, and under water has become a powerful deterring factor for terrorists' using such weapons," he added.

The U.S. has become a victim of an act of terrorism unprecedented by its scope, and all normal people are mourning over the tragedy, the expert said. However, the U.S. administration should seriously anticipate consequences of its strikes upon Afghanistan and the chain reaction it would trigger, he said.

Despite the fact that hundreds of nuclear bombs have been set off in the world, ecological consequences of these explosions are unpredictable, Danilov-Danilian said.

If the U.S. make nuclear strikes upon Afghanistan, no one can guarantee that this will not harm states bordering this country when a nuclear cloud covers Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, China, Pakistan, or Iran, he said.

"It is impossible to give guarantees on any nuclear explosion, especially if it is carried out not in experimental conditions at a testing range but in actual combat conditions," he warned.

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