|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
 |
 |
    |
|
|
|||
 |
|
||
|
|||
|
|
|
|
||||||||
|
ElBaradei Calls for New Nuclear Nonproliferation Measures
Following a nuclear nonproliferation speech yesterday by U.S. President George W. Bush, International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mohamed ElBaradei today outlined several new measures intended to strengthen nuclear nonproliferation efforts (see related GSN story, today). He laid out his nonproliferation measures in a commentary in today’s New York Times. The IAEA head wrote that the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, the linchpin of the international nuclear nonproliferation regime for more than 30 years, “must be tailored to fit 21st-century realities.” To do so, ElBaradei called for improved controls over the export of nuclear materials. He criticized the current mechanism, the 40-member Nuclear Suppliers Group, describing its as a limited and nonbinding “gentlemen’s agreement.” Instead, according to ElBaradei, treaty-based export controls should be created, and efforts to assist others in proliferation should be criminalized. ElBaradei also called for all U.N. members to sign Additional Protocols to their IAEA safeguards agreements, which would give the agency the authority to conduct more intrusive monitoring of countries’ nuclear activities. In addition, no country should be allowed to withdraw from the NPT, such as when North Korea announced its treaty withdrawal in early 2003, according to ElBaradei. “Any nation invoking this escape clause is almost certainly a threat to international peace and security,” he wrote. “At a minimum,” ElBaradei wrote, the withdraw of any country from the treaty should prompt an automatic U.N. Security Council review. In addition, ElBaradei reiterated his proposal to place enrichment and reprocessing activities under multinational control, and called for renewed negotiations on the Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty, which would ban the production of fissionable material for nuclear weapons. The five nuclear weapons states — China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States — should also develop a “clear road map” for total nuclear disarmament, he said. ElBaradei said his measures should be considered at the next NPT Review Conference, set to be held next year, “if the global community is serious about bringing nuclear proliferation to a halt” (Mohamed ElBaradei, New York Times, Feb. 12).
| ||||||||||
Back to top
