BRUSSELS, April 3. /TASS/. There is currently a "low probability" that the US or Israel could use nuclear weapons on Iran, or that Tehran would target Israeli nuclear sites, John Mecklin, editor-in-chief of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, said in an interview with Euractiv.
"Truly dire radioactive and nuclear results might be a low probability, but you can’t say it’s no probability," he pointed out.
"Accidents, miscalculations, crazy stuff: it all happens in wars," he noted, adding: "And so you can’t rule it out as long as this, what I view as a completely ridiculous attack on Iran, continues. There is no telling what the results might be."
In January, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moved the Doomsday Clock forward by four seconds to 85 seconds to midnight, the closest the Clock has ever been to midnight in its history.
Doomsday Clock
The Doomsday Clock is a metaphorical measure of how close humanity is to extinction. It is intended to warn the global community about danger. The position of its hands reflects the level of global tension linked to nuclear threats, military conflicts, climate change, cyber warfare, bioterrorism, and other risks.
Over its more than 70-year history, the clock’s hands have been adjusted more than 20 times. The furthest they have ever been set was 17 minutes to midnight in 1991, amid optimism following the end of the Cold War.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists was founded by researchers who took part in the Manhattan Project to develop nuclear weapons in the early 1940s. After witnessing the consequences of the US atomic bombings of Japan, they turned to pacifism. The journal has been published by the University of Chicago since 1945.