The Editor, Sir:

French President Sarkozy spoke recently on Iran and its imputed nuclear ambitions. His willingness to resort to war to prevent Iran's development of nuclear weapons was clear.

I hoped Mr. Sarkozy would have signalled some leadership intent to reduce to zero the world's stockpiles of nuclear weapons. I do not want Iran to have nuclear weapons. Neither do I wish France, or the United States, or Russia, or anybody else to have them. They are doomsday weapons, putting our very survival as a species at risk, and should be viewed with abhorrence by all well-thinking people.

The notion that some privileged countries have the right, not only to possess nuclear arsenals, but to prevent others from so doing is self-defeating. India, Pakistan, and North Korea illustrate this. With the same tenacity that some cling to the privilege, is the same determination that others reach for it. After the horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it is a great disappointment that humankind continues to nurture this fascination with such tools of destruction.

I am, etc.,

MICHAEL ROBINSON

Kingston 6