Today on line.com-The United States wants to make it harder for nations to withdraw from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, a US official said as an NPT conference was to open Monday amid increasing tension over Iran.
Washington is also hoping to avoid bickering between developed and developing nations at the 188-nation, two-week conference in Vienna, US head of delegation Christopher Ford told AFP in an interview Sunday.
Today on line.com-The United States wants to make it harder for nations to withdraw from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, a US official said as an NPT conference was to open Monday amid increasing tension over Iran.
Washington is also hoping to avoid bickering between developed and developing nations at the 188-nation, two-week conference in Vienna, US head of delegation Christopher Ford told AFP in an interview Sunday.
The meeting on the landmark 1970 NPT comes at a time of escalating crisis over Iran’s atomic program and as an agreement to dismantle North Korea’s nuclear program, which unlike Iran has actually produced atomic bombs, has stalled.
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"Obviously the treaty faces a lot of challenges. The best way we think to get the process started is all of us getting as quickly as possible into substantive debate," Ford said.
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He said "a country that is in violation (of the NPT) needs to be held accountable for its violations and just the fact that it withdraws shouldn’t be a way of erasing past misdeeds."
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The NPT, which went into effect at the height of the Cold War in 1970 and was extended indefinitely in 1995, is reviewed every five years. The last such meeting in May, 2005 failed to resolve any key questions, with non-aligned countries and nuclear powers bickering over an agenda.
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Beyond the proliferation concerns raised by Iran and North Korea, there is also concern that the NPT, a deal under which nuclear weapons states agree to disarm while those nations without the bomb agree not to seek it, is threatened by the new US strategy to use pre-emptive force if judged necessary and Britain’s upgrading of its nuclear arsenal.
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The Vienna meeting is the first of a series of preparatory sessions ahead of the next overall review in 2010.
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Experts agree that the NPT is ill adapted to the modern era, where so-called rogue states seek to acquire a nuclear weapons capacity by first developing peaceful programs under the terms of the treaty.
.
Proposed fixes include tougher UN inspections and for some NPT safeguards requirements to remain in effect even if states withdraw from the treaty and for dropout nations to be required to return material supplied by international suppliers for nuclear programs that had been promised to be peaceful.
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North Korea withdrew from the NPT in 2003, shortly after kicking out United Nations inspectors. North Korea tested an atomic bomb last October.
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Iran justifies its nuclear work under Article IV of the NPT, which guarantees "the inalienable right . . . to develop research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes."
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But the United States charges that Iran is using this as a cover for the secret development of nuclear weapons, something that is banned by the treaty.
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Still, George Perkovich, a non-proliferation analyst at the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, has called the NPT "the most effective treaty in history," referring to the fact that predictions made in the 1960s that there would soon be 30-40 nuclear weapons states have not come to pass.
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There are believed to be nine nuclear weapons states. They are the five allowed under the NPT, Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, the one which withdrew from the treaty, North Korea, and three nuclear states — India, Pakistan and Israel — which have refused to sign it.
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The preparatory session can not change the treaty but is expected to focus on problems not just in fighting proliferation but in getting the five original nuclear weapons states to live up to their NPT commitment to disarm, something non-aligned states will be stressing, diplomats and experts said.
.
"The risk of nuclear proliferation is too grave for the international community to shirk its responsibilities," nuclear and disarmament expert Rebecca Johnson wrote last week on her Acronym Institute website.
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She said the NPT "has already begun to unravel." ââ¬â AFP The United States wants to make it harder for nations to withdraw from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, a US official said as an NPT conference was to open Monday amid increasing tension over Iran.
.
Washington is also hoping to avoid bickering between developed and developing nations at the 188-nation, two-week conference in Vienna, US head of delegation Christopher Ford told AFP in an interview Sunday.
.
The meeting on the landmark 1970 NPT comes at a time of escalating crisis over Iran’s atomic program and as an agreement to dismantle North Korea’s nuclear program, which unlike Iran has actually produced atomic bombs, has stalled.
.
"Obviously the treaty faces a lot of challenges. The best way we think to get the process started is all of us getting as quickly as possible into substantive debate," Ford said.
.
He said "a country that is in violation (of the NPT) needs to be held accountable for its violations and just the fact that it withdraws shouldn’t be a way of erasing past misdeeds."
.
The NPT, which went into effect at the height of the Cold War in 1970 and was extended indefinitely in 1995, is reviewed every five years. The last such meeting in May, 2005 failed to resolve any key questions, with non-aligned countries and nuclear powers bickering over an agenda.
.
Beyond the proliferation concerns raised by Iran and North Korea, there is also concern that the NPT, a deal under which nuclear weapons states agree to disarm while those nations without the bomb agree not to seek it, is threatened by the new US strategy to use pre-emptive force if judged necessary and Britain’s upgrading of its nuclear arsenal.
.
The Vienna meeting is the first of a series of preparatory sessions ahead of the next overall review in 2010.
.
Experts agree that the NPT is ill adapted to the modern era, where so-called rogue states seek to acquire a nuclear weapons capacity by first developing peaceful programs under the terms of the treaty.
.
Proposed fixes include tougher UN inspections and for some NPT safeguards requirements to remain in effect even if states withdraw from the treaty and for dropout nations to be required to return material supplied by international suppliers for nuclear programs that had been promised to be peaceful.
.
North Korea withdrew from the NPT in 2003, shortly after kicking out United Nations inspectors. North Korea tested an atomic bomb last October.
.
Iran justifies its nuclear work under Article IV of the NPT, which guarantees "the inalienable right . . . to develop research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes."
.
But the United States charges that Iran is using this as a cover for the secret development of nuclear weapons, something that is banned by the treaty.
.
Still, George Perkovich, a non-proliferation analyst at the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, has called the NPT "the most effective treaty in history," referring to the fact that predictions made in the 1960s that there would soon be 30-40 nuclear weapons states have not come to pass.
.
There are believed to be nine nuclear weapons states. They are the five allowed under the NPT, Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, the one which withdrew from the treaty, North Korea, and three nuclear states — India, Pakistan and Israel — which have refused to sign it.
.
The preparatory session can not change the treaty but is expected to focus on problems not just in fighting proliferation but in getting the five original nuclear weapons states to live up to their NPT commitment to disarm, something non-aligned states will be stressing, diplomats and experts said.
.
"The risk of nuclear proliferation is too grave for the international community to shirk its responsibilities," nuclear and disarmament expert Rebecca Johnson wrote last week on her Acronym Institute website.
.
She said the NPT "has already begun to unravel." ââ¬â AFP The United States wants to make it harder for nations to withdraw from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, a US official said as an NPT conference was to open Monday amid increasing tension over Iran.
.
Washington is also hoping to avoid bickering between developed and developing nations at the 188-nation, two-week conference in Vienna, US head of delegation Christopher Ford told AFP in an interview Sunday.
.
The meeting on the landmark 1970 NPT comes at a time of escalating crisis over Iran’s atomic program and as an agreement to dismantle North Korea’s nuclear program, which unlike Iran has actually produced atomic bombs, has stalled.
.
"Obviously the treaty faces a lot of challenges. The best way we think to get the process started is all of us getting as quickly as possible into substantive debate," Ford said.
.
He said "a country that is in violation (of the NPT) needs to be held accountable for its violations and just the fact that it withdraws shouldn’t be a way of erasing past misdeeds."
.
The NPT, which went into effect at the height of the Cold War in 1970 and was extended indefinitely in 1995, is reviewed every five years. The last such meeting in May, 2005 failed to resolve any key questions, with non-aligned countries and nuclear powers bickering over an agenda.
.
Beyond the proliferation concerns raised by Iran and North Korea, there is also concern that the NPT, a deal under which nuclear weapons states agree to disarm while those nations without the bomb agree not to seek it, is threatened by the new US strategy to use pre-emptive force if judged necessary and Britain’s upgrading of its nuclear arsenal.
.
The Vienna meeting is the first of a series of preparatory sessions ahead of the next overall review in 2010.
.
Experts agree that the NPT is ill adapted to the modern era, where so-called rogue states seek to acquire a nuclear weapons capacity by first developing peaceful programs under the terms of the treaty.
.
Proposed fixes include tougher UN inspections and for some NPT safeguards requirements to remain in effect even if states withdraw from the treaty and for dropout nations to be required to return material supplied by international suppliers for nuclear programs that had been promised to be peaceful.
.
North Korea withdrew from the NPT in 2003, shortly after kicking out United Nations inspectors. North Korea tested an atomic bomb last October.
