In Vienna, delegations continue to negotiate Iran’s return to compliance with the JCPOA. On Monday, January 24, the issue of releasing U.S. citizens came up on the agenda as a precondition for continuing negotiations. Earlier, the American delegation insisted the negotiations on prisoners release were not tied to those in Vienna and were conducted separately. Apparently, this connection is now urgent to advance the problem with imprisoned U.S. citizens; unless the issues are linked now, the U.S. might miss the opportunity to exert pressure on Tehran’s stance.

In 2022 global nonproliferation community will mark the 20th anniversary of the United Nations Study on Disarmament and Non-Proliferation Education. Since then, disarmament and nonproliferation education is one of the key instruments of ensuring global security. Raising a new generation of nonproliferation and disarmament experts as well as spreading the knowledge about nuclear factors in international relations among policymakers and civil society are essential to sustain the regime of nuclear nonproliferation today and in the future.

Recently, the world’s attention has been increasingly focused on the situation in Ukraine. On January 21 Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and United States Secretary of State Anthony Blinken met in Geneva to discuss some issues including guarantees that Ukraine would not be admitted to NATO. The situation is reminiscent of the typical “military alarm”: the media increasingly report that Russia is drawing troops to the eastern border of Ukraine, arms supplies are actively being sent to Ukraine, and sanctions would be imposed on Russia if it unleashes war. There are also reports that the United States is beginning to evacuate its diplomats from Kyiv. At the same time, NATO promised to build up a group of its troops in Europe.