WASHINGTON, April 5 (UPI) -- U.S. nuclear weapons strategy will be revised with new limits on conditions allowing for use of nuclear weapons, President Barack Obama told The New York Times.
In an interview, the president told the newspaper the policy, to be announced Tuesday, is part of an overall strategy intended to make nuclear weapons obsolete. Under the new policy, the United States will not develop any new nuclear weapons, the newspaper said.
Obama said new restrictions on U.S. use of nuclear weapons will not apply to "outliers like Iran and North Korea" -- nations that have violated or rejected treaties on nuclear non-proliferation.
The new strategy eliminates what the newspaper called deliberate ambiguity in U.S. nuclear policy dating back to the onset of the Cold War. The United States will commit to not using nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states -- as long as they are in compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty -- even if they launch biological or chemical weapons attacks, or cyberattacks, on the United States.
Obama said there other ways, short of nuclear warfare, to deter such attacks.
"I'm going to preserve all the tools that are necessary in order to make sure that the American people are safe and secure," the president said.
