Obama 24

Barack Obama goes ahead with missile defence shield despite disarmament pledge

"He sounded like George W Bush saying that we should be afraid in order to justify missile defence."
Gary Samore, a White House adviser on arms control, indicated that Mr Obama's call for ridding the world of nuclear weapons should not be taken too literally. "In terms of a nuclear-free world, we recognise this is not a near-term possibility," he said. Rather, the call was an attempt to "seize the moral high ground" in order to increase pressure on countries such as North Korea and Iran.