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CWC: U.S., Iran Trade Accusations at Treaty Review Conference Opening By David Ruppe The treaty, which bans the possession and manufacture of chemical weapons, was opened for signature in 1993 and now has 151 members. The treaty entered into force in 1997 and review conferences are scheduled for about every five years. In a prepared statement to the conference, Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control Stephen Rademaker said the United States believes “over a dozen” countries currently have or are actively seeking chemical weapons, and he identified five of them, including Iran and Sudan — both parties to the treaty — and nontreaty members Libya, North Korea and Syria (see GSN, April 11). The Bush administration has previously pinpointed the five countries in other forums as well, but the statement at the opening of the conference, which is intended to review the treaty for possible changes, has generated some controversy. “We owe it to you in this room to be candid about what [U.S.] concerns are,” he said. “The United States believes it is dangerous to acquiesce quietly in violations of the fundamental obligations arising under this convention,” he said. Rademaker said the United States was “most troubled by the activities of Iran, which we believe continues to seek chemicals, production technology, training and expertise from abroad.” He said the United States believes Iran has stockpiled blister, blood, and choking agents and has some nerve agents. He said North Korea is believed to have the capability to produce bulk quantities of nerve, blister, choking and blood agent and has a variety of means to deliver the weapons. Iranian Criticisms An Iranian delegate called the U.S. charge against his country “baseless” and said the public accusation could undermine the cooperative environment of the conference. “These kinds of comments and allegations by a state party against another state party would definitely put the expected constructive and cooperative atmosphere of the 1st review conference in jeopardy,” he said. He said “one could conclude” the accusation was an attempt at “weakening this successful treaty.” The official accused the United States of transferring “huge amounts of scheduled chemicals” to Israel, not a treaty party, and said Washington was partially responsible for 100,000 Iranian chemical weapons victims during the Iran-Iraq war. “The U.S. and some other industrial countries which equipped and helped Saddam’s regime have to be blamed for it,” he said in a printed copy of the speech. Intelligence Information Rademaker was asked at a subsequent press conference why the United States had not requested a challenge inspection permitted by the treaty to try to ascertain evidence of alleged chemical weapons activities. He said challenge inspections could prove ineffective against countries determined to hide illicit weapons, citing in particular U.N. efforts to uncover alleged Iraqi weapons and Germany’s post-World War I evasion of its disarmament requirements. “The United States supports the inspection and declaration provisions of the CWC, but we have no illusions about the effectiveness of such measures against determined cheaters,” Rademaker said in his prepared statement. He said U.S. intelligence agencies had developed the information, and added, “We’re quite confident in our information.” “The information we have is quite disturbing,” he said. Some critics of the U.S. statement faulted it for naming only some of the countries Washington believes to possess or seek chemical weapons. Rademaker’s speech was “pretty hard-hitting, but of course it didn’t include Israel and Egypt,” said Trevor Findlay, director of the nongovernmental organization Verification, Research, Training and Information Center. Rademaker said his focus was on identifying those countries suspected of having chemical weapons and relationships to terrorists. “The greatest risk of all is from those countries that have weapons of mass destruction and support international terrorism,” he said during the press conference. In his speech, he also faulted more than half of the treaty parties for not yet indicating that they are adopting national legislation to implement the treaty. He urged all parties to report on their implementing measures by October, when the next regular meeting of parties is scheduled, and said the United States would assist any states that needed help establishing such measures. For further information, see: Pentagon Executive Summary of CWC
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