Libyan Foreign Minister Abdel Rahman Mohammed Shalgam is expected to meet with British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw within weeks (AFP photo/Alessandro Bianchi). Pakistan Source of Libyan Centrifuge Technology, U.S. Officials Say Pakistan was the source of uranium centrifuge design technology for Libya, Bush administration officials and Western experts said yesterday (see GSN, Jan. 5). Experts have said that many of the centrifuge components that Libya imported were produced in Malaysia, according to the New York Times...Full Story

Iranian Nuclear Activities Are Safe From U.N. Security Council Review, Diplomat Says By Joe Fiorill Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — The United States now considers that its bid to refer Iran’s recently acknowledged illicit nuclear programs to the U.N. Security Council is “probably … dead,” a Western diplomat in Vienna said yesterday...Full Story

North Korea Repeats Offer of Nuclear Freeze for Economic Incentives North Korea today said that it is willing to stop producing and testing nuclear weapons in exchange for economic concessions from the United States (see GSN, Dec. 30, 2003)...Full Story

	Tuesday, January 6, 2004

Pakistan Source of Libyan Centrifuge Technology, U.S. Officials Say Pakistan was the source of uranium centrifuge design technology for Libya, Bush administration officials and Western experts said yesterday (see GSN, Jan. 5). Experts have said that many of the centrifuge components that Libya imported were produced in Malaysia, according to the New York Times. “It has all the hallmarks of a Pakistani system,” a senior U.S. official said. “These guys are now three for three as supplier to the biggest proliferation problems we have,” the official added, referring to previously disclosed Pakistani aid to the nuclear programs of North Korea and Iran. There is no sign, though, that the centrifuge technology transfers were approved by the Pakistani government, a senior Bush administration official said. “This is intellectual property … and the technology of uranium enrichment is out there on the black market,” the official said. He added that saying the Pakistani government is involved is akin to saying “an American drug smuggler arrested on the border was working for the United States government” (Tyler/Sanger, New York Times, Jan. 6). Pakistan today, however, denied the New York Times report, according to the Associated Press. “This is total madness. The report is absolutely false, and there is no truth in it,” Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said. Ahmed suggested that the allegations of Pakistani nuclear proliferation were part of a smear campaign, and denied any such activities. “Pakistan’s program is under tight control and in safe hands,” Ahmed said. “People keep publishing this kind of trash. Let me again say that Pakistan is a responsible state and Pakistan has never proliferated,” he added. A senior Pakistani Atomic Energy Commission official, though, would only deny any governmental involvement in any alleged transfers, AP reported. “The government of Pakistan was not behind any move aimed at transferring nuclear knowledge or technology or any other thing to any other country,” the official said. “Pakistan should not be blamed for any individual’s wrongful act,” though, the official added. “We do not know who has been helping Iran, North Korea or Libya,” the official said (Associated Press/New York Times, Jan. 6). Libyan Dismantlement Meanwhile, the United States envisions a role for the International Atomic Energy Agency in the dismantlement of Libya’s WMD programs, U.S. State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said yesterday. “We do not see any conflict between the responsibilities of the IAEA and the initiative under way by the U.K. and the United States with Libya,” Ereli said. “Under the (Nuclear) Nonproliferation Treaty and the requisite Libyan safeguards agreements with the (IAEA), it is the agency’s job to implement international verification of Libyan nuclear activities, including the Additional Protocol that Libya has said it will sign,” he said. Ereli said the United States was responsible under a “political agreement” with Libya to “help ensure and expedite” the removal of all weapons-related aspects of Libya’s nuclear program. “We plan to continue working closely with the IAEA in facilitating complete verification by it,” he said (Reuters/AlertNet.org, Jan. 6). U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton met last week with British officials in London to discuss verification measures for the dismantlement of Libya’s WMD programs, according to the U.S. State Department. A senior State Department official denied, though, that there was any conflict between the United States and the IAEA over responsibility for verifying the Libyan WMD program dismantlement effort. “The IAEA has a role, other international organizations have a role, we have a role, the Brits have a role and it’s going to take some time to work out basically who does what and when and what the relationship to everybody else is,” the official said (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Jan. 2). Libyan Rehabilitation Even though Libya has agreed to dismantle its WMD programs, the United States will maintain a freeze on Libyan assets for now, U.S. President George W. Bush announced yesterday. In a written statement, Bush said he would maintain the “declaration of national emergency” related to Libya that was first issued by former U.S. President Ronald Regan in 1986. The declaration will not be lifted, according to Bush, until the dismantlement of Libya’s WMD programs is verified. “Libya’s agreement marks the beginning of a process of rejoining the community of nations, but its declaration of December 19, 2003, must be followed by verification of concrete steps,” Bush said (White House release, Jan. 5). According to British officials, though, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw is set to meet Libyan Foreign Minister Abdel Rahman Mohammed Shalgam “within weeks” — a meeting that could be a precursor to a meeting between British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Libyan leader Col. Muammar Qadhafi, according to the Financial Times. The meeting will cover “a range of bilateral and international issues,” Straw told the British Parliament yesterday. Straw also said that “a relationship of trust” had been developed between Libya and the United Kingdom. “For our part, we have recognized that now we have corresponding responsibilities to enable Libya to come fully into the mainstream of the international community,” he said (Christopher Adams, Financial Times, Jan. 5). Back to top       Syria Has Right to WMD Deterrent, Assad Says Syrian President Bashar Assad said yesterday that his country has the right to acquire biological and chemical weapons for deterrence purposes, according to the London Telegraph (see GSN, Dec.30, 2003). Asked in an interview if Syria currently possesses weapons of mass destruction, Assad did not outright deny the charge made recently and repeatedly by the United States. Instead, he suggested that Syria needed such weapons to ward off Israel. “We are a country which is (partly) occupied and from time to time we are exposed to Israeli aggression,” he said, referring to the disputed Golan Heights. “It is natural for us to look for means to defend ourselves. It is not difficult to get most of these weapons anywhere in the world and they can be obtained at any time,” Assad added. Assad also said that Syria would dismantle its biological and chemical weapons capabilities only if Israel agreed to abandon its long-assumed stockpile of nuclear weapons. “Unless this applies to all countries, we are wasting our time,” he said (London Telegraph, Jan. 6). Back to top

Iranian Nuclear Activities Are Safe From U.N. Security Council Review, Diplomat Says By Joe Fiorill Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — The United States now considers that its bid to refer Iran’s recently acknowledged illicit nuclear programs to the U.N. Security Council is “probably … dead,” a Western diplomat in Vienna said yesterday. The acknowledgement reflects Washington’s lack of success, including during two recent meetings of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s 35-member Board of Governors, to convince other Western countries that Iran’s nuclear activity merited a referral to the council. It follows reported improvements in Iranian cooperation with the IAEA, which along with other factors led U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell last week to say Washington “should keep open the possibility of dialogue” with diplomatically estranged Iran “at an appropriate point in the future.” In a Nov. 10 report, IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei told the board that Iran had for 18 years systematically concealed activities including the production of small amounts of plutonium and low-enriched uranium (see GSN, Nov. 11, 2003). The board responded two weeks later by adopting a British-French-German resolution that turned back the U.S. drive for a Security Council referral but indicated the board would “meet immediately” if any new “serious Iranian failures [came] to light” and would “consider … all options at its disposal” (see GSN, Nov. 26, 2003). U.S. envoy in Vienna Kenneth Brill said at the time that the board’s action showed that “Iran should make no mistake about our resolve that under such circumstances, an immediate report to the UNSC [U.N. Security Council] would be necessary.” According to the diplomat in Vienna, however, Washington now believes that only a spectacular revelation could revive efforts to send the Iran case to the Security Council. “Probably, the issue of the Security Council is dead,” said the diplomat. “The trigger is left purposefully vague” in the board’s Nov. 26 resolution, the diplomat said, “but I would definitely say something like a new site … something super big like a new site or some obvious nondeclared site” would be needed to send the case to New York. Nuclear Control Institute founder Paul Leventhal, who favors the creation of a Security Council-associated agency to take over safeguards activities from the IAEA, said the Board of Governors has become an inadequate forum for dealing with the Iranian case but that a referral to the council is “not going to happen.” “When a nation cheats for 18 years and fails to declare enrichment facilities to the agency, this is not a matter any more for the Board of Governors,” said Leventhal. Back to top       North Korea Repeats Offer of Nuclear Freeze for Economic Incentives North Korea today said that it is willing to stop producing and testing nuclear weapons in exchange for economic concessions from the United States (see GSN, Dec. 30, 2003). While North Korea referred to the offer as “bold and magnanimous,” it is not significantly different from previous overtures. It comes, however, shortly after North Korea invited a delegation of U.S. nuclear and foreign policy experts to visit Pyongyang and possibly its nuclear facility at Yongbyon. The new efforts at outreach might signal increased desperation on the part of the North Korean leadership, the Los Angeles Times reported. “We are hoping we can do some good, but we don’t know yet,” said Siegfried Hecker, the former director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory and a member of the delegation (Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times, Jan. 6). North Korea’s recent offer is more specific than previous proposed nuclear freezes, the Associated Press reported. North Korean officials said they are “set to refrain from testing and production of nuclear weapons and stop even operating (its) nuclear power industry for a peaceful purpose.” “If the United States keeps ignoring our efforts and continues to pressurize the D.P.R.K. to scrap its nuclear weapons program first while shelving the issue of making a switchover in its policy toward the D.P.R.K., the basis of dialogue will be demolished and a shadow will be cast over the prospects of talks,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency said in a commentary (Associated Press/USA Today, Jan. 6). Washington, however, said that it will not offer concessions simply to reward North Korea for holding discussions. “We are continuing to state pretty categorically, that we’re not going to offer incentives for North Korea to return to the negotiating table,” said State Department spokesman Adam Ereli. “We are prepared to resume talks without preconditions,” he added (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Juan 6). Back to top       India, Pakistan Agree to Begin Dialogue Next Month India and Pakistan have agreed to begin a dialogue next month that the two sides believe could settle their dispute over the Kashmir region — a flashpoint between the two nuclear-armed rivals, Reuters reported today (see GSN, Jan. 5). “To carry the process forward, the president of Pakistan and the prime minister of India have agreed to commence the process of composite dialogue in February 2004,” Indian Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha said today, reading from a joint statement. “The two leaders are confident that the resumption of the composite dialogue will lead to peaceful settlement of all bilateral issues including Jammu and Kashmir,” he said. The agreement was reached during a bilateral meeting yesterday between Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf on the sidelines of a summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation held in Islamabad. Sinha said yesterday that details for the dialogue still needed to be completed (Reuters, Jan. 6). In addition, Musharraf “reassured” Vajpayee during their meeting that “he will not permit any territory under Pakistan’s control to be used to support terrorism in any manner,” according to the joint statement (BBC News, Jan. 6). India has repeatedly called on Pakistan to prevent crossborder terrorism in the Kashmir region. Several Pakistani-based Kashmiri militant groups have criticized the announced peace dialogue. A spokesman for the banned group Jaish-e-Mohammed, which has been linked to a failed assassination attempt against Musharraf last month, accused Musharraf of “betraying Kashmiris.” “He must remember Kashmiris can turn their back on Pakistan and launch a struggle for a separate homeland,” Khalil Ahmed Naqshbandi said (Watson/Zaidi, Los Angeles Times, Jan. 6). Back to top

Russia Completes Destruction of First 10 Tons of Lewisite Russia has destroyed the first 10 metric tons of lewisite from its stockpile at the Gorny chemical weapons disposal plant, ITAR-Tass reported yesterday (see GSN, Nov. 25, 2003). The plant’s operations are monitored by experts from outside Russia, according to Igor Chistyakov, the deputy director of the regional information and analysis center for safeguarding and destruction of chemical weapons. Chistyakov also said that the plant is operating safely. “All ecological parameters are normal,” he said. Russia is on track to destroy its chemical weapons stockpile by 2012, according to Alexander Kharichev, an adviser to the chief of the governmental commission for chemical disarmament (ITAR-Tass, Jan. 5). Back to top       France Arrests Five Alleged Chechen Sympathizers French authorities detained five people today near Lyon for allegedly providing support to Islamic militants connected to rebels in the Russian province of Chechnya (see GSN, March 20, 2003). About 10 suspects linked to Chechen rebels are still in prison a year after security officials raided several apartments in the Paris suburbs and discovered chemical weapons materials. The suspects arrested today are being questioned for providing false passports to Islamic militants, the Associated Press reported (Associated Press/CTV, Jan. 6). Back to top

Critics and Supporters Agree, Some Form of National Missile Defense Will Debut in 2004 The U.S. national missile defense system will almost certainly be fielded in 2004 — as U.S. President George W. Bush promised two years ago — but experts and officials are sharply divided over whether the system will be effective, Aerospace Daily reported today (see GSN, Dec. 17). “I have no doubt they’ll have something in the ground,” said Victoria Samson, an analyst at the Center for Defense Information. “Whether or not I think it’s going to work is the question,” she added. The continued nuclear standoff with North Korea and the November presidential elections are fueling the push toward fielding a missile defense system by the end of October, according to Aerospace Daily. “The train is going down the track at 80 miles per hour, and I don’t see it being derailed,” said a congressional source. “It’s about as inevitable as something could be,” the source added. Critics have said that the system needs further testing and development before it can be effectively fielded. They are concerned that Bush will deploy a faulty, expensive system simply to placate voters (Marc Selinger, Aerospace Daily, Jan. 6). Back to top

Yucca Mountain Oversight Board Chairman Resigns The head of an independent board of experts that provides oversight for the U.S. Energy Department’s plan to construct a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada resigned last week due to a dispute over alleged conflicts of interest, according to Energy Daily (see GSN, Dec. 9, 2003). “Ever since I took this position in June 2002, the board and staff members have been required to respond to inquiries about perceived conflicts of interest and these distractions have created a huge burden on the board members and staff and diverted us from our proper oversight role,” Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board Chairman Michael Corradini said in a resignation letter to U.S. President George W. Bush. In April, the board’s nine other members called on Corradini to step down as chairman, in part, because of his oft-expressed view that the planned Yucca Mountain repository could safely store nuclear waste, according to Energy Daily. Several board members have criticized Corradini’s support for the project because the board is only to advise the Energy Department on the scientific soundness of the Yucca Mountain repository design and operation plans, and therefore no board members should offer prejudgment of the department’s plans before they are completed. “We’re just supposed to say, ‘DOE you presented this data and is it valid data?’” said board member David Duquette, professor of material science and engineering at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Duquette is set to serve as acting board chairman until a replacement is appointed by Bush (Jeff Beattie, Energy Daily, Jan. 6).   Back to top

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