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CTBT: China and Iran Are Slow With Reports China and Iran have stopped transmitting real-time information to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization, possibly due to concerns over cost and U.S. opposition to the treaty, Reuters reported today. China, which has four stations on its territory to monitor nuclear blasts, has not installed the communication facilities necessary to send data to the CTBT headquarters in Vienna. China has other monitoring stations as part of an agreement with the United States, but it has also stopped sending data in real time from those stations, using diplomatic pouches to carry computer discs instead, U.S. officials said. Iran stopped sending data to Vienna a few months after establishing a monitoring station last year, according to a U.S. official and a diplomatic source. Iran, China and other countries have expressed concern that they must pay millions of dollars to the CTBT Organization without any assurance that the treaty will ever take effect. The CTBT, which prohibits all nuclear test explosions, cannot enter into effect until 44 nuclear weapon-capable states ratify it, but only 31 have done so. The organization’s operations cost $85 million to $90 million annually, according to Reuters. Retaliation for U.S. Opposition China and Iran might also be trying to retaliate for the Bush administration’s decision to oppose the treaty and for a U.S. decision to pay only certain costs of the treaty. The United States signed the treaty in 1996, but the U.S. Senate refused to approve it during the Clinton administration, and President George W. Bush opposes it (see GSN, Jan. 8). The United States has agreed to pay most — but not all — of its $18 million annual share of the CTBT organization’s cost. China might be slow to comply with the treaty’s reporting mechanisms partly because the United States said it would pay only costs related to the monitoring system and not other functions of the CTBT Organization, a U.S. official said. Problems for the CTBT Organization “The whole thing could unravel” if other countries decide to withhold data or to not pay dues, the U.S. official said. Meanwhile, a new human resources report by an independent consultant said a “consistent message of fear and mistrust” exists among the organization’s 260-member secretariat, Reuters reported. Some employees feel the organization places priority on political concerns rather than technical requirements, and many top employees have left, the report said. Organization’s Response The organization is working with China to establish a data-reporting framework and with Iran to resolve a “legal question” that is interfering with reporting, said CTBT Organization spokeswoman Daniela Rozgonova. The organization is addressing recommendations in the human resources report, she added. The organization has 337 sensors around the world to verify the test ban if the treaty enters into force (Carol Giacomo, Reuters/Planet Ark, March 8).
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