UK Prime Minister Theresa May will use nuclear weapons “as a first strike” against Britains enemies, even if the country is not directly attacked, her Defense Secretary Michael Fallon said.
Fallon told the BBC on Monday that the prime minister was prepared to launch Trident in “the most extreme circumstances”, even if Britain itself was not under nuclear attack.
“We have made it very clear that you can’t rule out the use of nuclear weapons as a first strike” he said
BYPASS THE CENSORS
Sign up to get unfiltered news delivered straight to your inbox.
You can unsubscribe any time. By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use
Press TV reports: Asked what the circumstances would be, the British Defense chief said, “They are better not specified or described, which would only give comfort to our enemies and make the deterrent less credible.”
He further argued that “The whole point about the deterrent is that you have got to leave uncertainty in the mind of anyone who might be thinking of using weapons against this country.”
Later in the day, Fallon’s spokesman asserted that there was “no reason to disagree with what the defense secretary said.”
Last year, a vote in the House of Commons saw MPs vote for Trident’s renewal, which would cost billions of pounds.
Activists oppose the renewal of Trident, describing it as a violation of international commitments, unsafe and ill-suited for contemporary warfare.
Russian MP Frants Klintsevich said Fallon’s threat should be viewed as “psychological warfare”
He slammed the UK’s readiness to launch a preemptive nuclear strike against it’s “enemies”saying the comment “deserves a tough answer, and I’m not afraid to overdo it.”
“If Britain attacks a nuclear power, it will be “literally wiped off the earth by a retaliatory strike given its not-too-vast territory”
However, if a non-nuclear state is implied, the UK seems to be open to repeating what the US did to the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, he added.
