[Mb-civic] Blix Blames U.S. for Nuke-weapons Stalemate

[ean at sbcglobal.net]

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0510-07.htm

Published on Tuesday, May 10, 2005 by the Associated Press

Blix Blames U.S. for Nuke-weapons Stalemate
Ex-U.N. inspector cites double standards on nonproliferation 
treaty
 

UNITED NATIONS -- Washington isn’t taking “the common bargain” of 
the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty as seriously as it once did, and 
that’s dimming global support for the U.S. campaign to shut down the 
North Korean and Iranian nuclear programs, the former chief U.N. 
weapons inspector said.

Undersecretary of State John R. Bolton, by questioning the value of 
treaties and international law, has also damaged the U.S. position, 
Hans Blix said.

“There is a feeling the common edifice of the international community 
is being dismantled,” the Swedish arms expert said.

Blix, now chairman of the Swedish government-sponsored Weapons 
of Mass Destruction Commission, spoke with reporters in the second 
week of a month-long conference to review the 1970 nonproliferation 
treaty.

Under the 188-nation pact, nations without nuclear weapons pledge 
not to pursue them, in exchange for a commitment by five nuclear-
weapons states — the United States, Russia, Britain, France and 
China — to negotiate toward nuclear disarmament.

Slow move toward disarmament

The review conference has been stalled, without an agenda, because 
of a dispute over agenda language dealing with the very dissatisfaction 
Blix spoke of: the complaints by some that the nuclear-weapons states 
are moving too slowly toward disarmament.

A last-minute objection by Egypt last Friday scuttled an apparent 
agreement on the agenda. The Egyptians wanted language that 
focused more on assessing how well the nuclear powers have done in 
taking specific steps toward disarmament, under commitments they 
made in 2000 at the last of these twice-a-decade conferences.

Nuclear “have-nots” complain that the Bush administration, in 
particular, has acted contrary to those commitments, by rejecting the 
nuclear test-ban treaty, for example.

Washington, for its part, wants the conference to focus on what it 
alleges are Iran’s plans to build nuclear arms in violation of the treaty, 
and on North Korea’s withdrawal from the treaty and claim to have 
nuclear bombs.

Blix told reporters there is “a great deal of concern” about North Korea 
and Iran among states without nuclear weapons.

But “that feeling of concern is somewhat muted by the feeling that the 
United States in particular, and perhaps some other nuclear weapons 
states, are not taking the common bargain as seriously as they had 
committed themselves to do in the past,” he said.

'Why are you complaining?'

He cited Bush administration proposals to build new nuclear weapons 
and talk in Washington even of testing weapons, ending a 13-year-old 
U.S. moratorium on nuclear tests. He also referred to statements by 
Bolton, President Bush’s embattled nominee to be U.N. ambassador, 
devaluing treaties and the authority of international law.

“Why are you complaining about (North Korea) breaching the treaty if 
treaties are not binding?” Blix, an international lawyer, asked 
rhetorically.

In 2002-03, Blix led U.N. teams that found no evidence of weapons of 
mass destruction in Iraq in 700 inspections, undermining Bush 
administration claims that such weapons existed. Despite these 
findings, Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq, and U.S. inspectors have 
since similarly found no such weapons programs.

At the treaty conference Monday, private consultations appeared to 
make progress toward agreement on an agenda, without which the 
sessions might be unable to address such pressing issues as North 
Korea and Iran.

The conference president, Sergio de Queiroz Duarte, met with key 
parties over the weekend to try to bridge the diplomatic gap. On 
Monday, without confirming that agreement was in hand, the Brazilian 
diplomat said, “It seems we are continuing the consultations in a 
favorable mood.” He said he hoped an agenda could be adopted as 
early as Tuesday.

© 2005 The Associated Press

###


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