Iranian nuclear envoy Ali Larijani speaks to the press today in Tehran before departing for Madrid for nuclear talks (Atta Kenare/Getty Images). No Nuclear Freeze, Iran Says Iran today reaffirmed its refusal to suspend its uranium enrichment program, with one official describing Western demands to do so as “unprincipled,” the Associated Press reported (see GSN, May 29). Lead Iranian nuclear envoy Ali Larijani spoke to reporters on the eve of talks with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana in Madrid.  With U.S. backing, the European Union has been seeking talks to resolve the Iranian nuclear crisis, but the Western nations and the U.N. Security Council have demanded that Tehran freeze its sensitive nuclear activities before beginning those negotiations...Full Story

Moscow Bans Transfer of Human Medical Specimens Apparently seeking to prevent biological terrorism, Russia this week imposed a ban on the removal of all human biological materials from the nation, Kommersant reported today (see GSN, Oct. 3, 2005)...Full Story

Russia Faces Missile Shortage Russia will need to significantly accelerate its strategic missile production if it hopes to maintain parity with U.S. forces, defense analysts said yesterday...Full Story

	Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Mexico Forms Antiterror Committee Mexico created a special government committee Monday to improve antiterrorism efforts, the Orlando Sentinel reported (see GSN, April 17). The High-Level Specialized Committee would consist of six subgroups, including ones to address nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, according to the Sentinel. The committee would seek to implement domestic measures more efficiently and to enhance international cooperation (Orlando Sentinel, May 29). Back to top

Blair Urges Iran to Consider Libyan Model Libya’s renunciation of weapons of mass destruction should serve as model for Iran, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said yesterday during a visit to the North African nation (see GSN, March 6, 2004). In 2003, Libya announced it would abandon its nuclear and chemical weapons programs in exchange for Western nations lowering political and economic sanctions. West European countries, with U.S. support, have offered similar provisions in an effort to persuade Iran to stop its nuclear activities (see related GSN story, today). “I think it is always possible for relationships to change but they change ultimately on the basis of actions,” Blair said at a press conference.  “In respect of Iran I've got no doubt at all that the situation is the same in this sense that the potential for partnership is always there provided the actions are the actions of partners.” Blair praised Libyan leader Col. Muammar Qadhafi’s decision to reverse the nation’s isolation. “Now that is something that is open to anybody who wants to take it,” he said (Reuters, May 30). Back to top

No Nuclear Freeze, Iran Says Iran today reaffirmed its refusal to suspend its uranium enrichment program, with one official describing Western demands to do so as “unprincipled,” the Associated Press reported (see GSN, May 29). Lead Iranian nuclear envoy Ali Larijani spoke to reporters on the eve of talks with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana in Madrid.  With U.S. backing, the European Union has been seeking talks to resolve the Iranian nuclear crisis, but the Western nations and the U.N. Security Council have demanded that Tehran freeze its sensitive nuclear activities before beginning those negotiations. “Suspension is not the right solution for solving Iran's nuclear issue,” Larijani said.  “Past experiences have shown that suspension is not acceptable, at all.” He said Iran would cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency to demonstrate that its nuclear program was peaceful, but repeated that “if Iran is supposed to suspend its nuclear activities, there will be no issue for talks” (Nasser Karimi, Associated Press I/San Diego Union-Tribune, May 30). IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei recently triggered protests from Western nations when he made comments suggesting that Iranian technical advances may have made the Western negotiating stance obsolete (see GSN, May 25). However, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday that the U.S. position remains the same. “We are firm about the need to suspend, we are firm about the need to continue to increase the pressure and we're firm that should Iran make a different choice we are prepared to go that way as well,” Rice told reporters in Berlin. Changing that position “would be a very big mistake,” she added. For ElBaradei, she counseled his silence. “The IAEA is not an agency that is in negotiation with the Iranians,” Rice said while noting that the five permanent Security Council members plus Germany have taken the diplomatic lead.  “I just think it's appropriate for those six states to determine what the diplomatic course ought to be” (Anne Gearan, Associated Press II/Washington Post, May 29). Back to top       Russia Faces Missile Shortage Russia will need to significantly accelerate its strategic missile production if it hopes to maintain parity with U.S. forces, defense analysts said yesterday. Their comments followed the first flight-test of a new Russian long-range missile capable of carrying multiple warheads (see GSN, May 29).  The missile, designated the RS-24, is intended to replace two aging Cold War missiles that are expected to become unserviceable in less than 10 years, the Moscow Times reported. Russia’s strategic rocket forces would need to deploy about 40 of the new missiles annually to keep roughly equal numbers with the United States, said Ivan Safranchuk, Moscow director of the Washington-based World Security Institute. Recently, Russia has annually deployed only about six Topol M missiles, a single-warhead ICBM (see GSN, Feb. 7). Yesterday’s test came amid tensions over U.S. plans to deploy missile interceptors in Eastern Europe, and Russian officials said the new system would be able to penetrate any U.S. defenses. Still, Russia would need to replenish its missiles to feel confident in its deterrent, said Kevin Ryan, a Harvard University researcher. “As their arsenal declines and our defense increases, there could come a time, sooner than later, when the two trends could be great enough to affect the strategic balance,” he said. Russia plans to deploy the new missile on mobile launchers, a move that would reduce the missiles’ vulnerability to U.S. attack, Safranchuk said.  He urged U.S. officials to consider extending the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, a pact that requires both sides to declare the locations of their land-based strategic nuclear weapons. If the treaty expires as scheduled in 2009, Russia would not be required to disclose the location of the new missiles, he said (see GSN, May 23). “This should become an issue of serious concern for Americans,” Safranchuk said (Simon Saradzhyan, Moscow Times, May 30). The RS-24 is derived from the Topol M, originally designed to carry up to three nuclear warheads but has so far been armed with just one, Nezavisimoye Voyennoye Obozreniye reported last week. Because the single-warhead version has extra room in its nosecone, Russia has fitted the Topol Ms with maneuverable reentry vehicles, according to the magazine (see GSN, Aug. 16, 2006). Those systems enable a descending warhead to zigzag unpredictably, making the job of intercepting them vastly more difficult, said Gen. Yuri Baluyevsky, chief of Russia’s general staff (Nezavisimoye Voyennoye Obozreniye, Defense and Security, May 30). Back to top       North Korea Blames U.S. For Nuclear Deal Delays North Korea today faulted the United States for the stalled February agreement to freeze North Korean nuclear activities, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, May 29). North and South Korean officials have been holding bilateral talks this week to discuss the provision of South Korean aid, a move that Seoul has slowed while waiting for the nuclear agreement to advance. “Your side knows well why the implementation of the Feb. 13 agreement is being delayed,” said North Korean chief delegate Kwon Ho-Ung.  “The U.S. is responsible for the delay, not our side.” “Because of the intervention of foreign powers, the implementation of what is agreed upon between the two Koreas is being suspended, and the inter-Korean relationship is being edged out by foreign powers,” Kwon added (Lim Chang-won, Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, May 30). Pyongyang has refused to take the first steps until it receives about $25 million in accounts once frozen by a Macau bank under U.S. pressure.  Washington has approved the release, but North Korea has found no other bank to receive the funds that U.S. officials describe as tainted by counterfeiting and money laundering activities. Lead U.S. nuclear envoy Christopher Hill was scheduled to meet Chinese officials in Beijing today to discuss the financial snag, but he offered little optimism for a quick resolution. “We've been wrong so many times in terms of predicting when this should happen,” he told reporters.  “The positive side is the North Koreans have continued to indicate they're prepared to do what they're supposed to do. The problem has been we've really had trouble resolving this issue in Macau.” Hill urged North Korea to proceed with the February deal anyway. “We will get it done [resolve the bank problem] but I think it would be helpful if the North Koreans got on with their tasks as well,” he said (Reuters, May 30). Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin has issued a decree to implement U.N. Security Council sanctions against North Korea, Interfax reported today (see GSN, ). The order bans Russian government agencies, private firms and individuals from selling any technology or materials “that can potentially facilitate the implementation of North Korea’s programs related to nuclear weapons, other types of weapons of mass destruction or ballistic missiles.” It also bars the sale of heavy military equipment to North Korea, including aircraft, tanks and warships (Interfax, May 30). Back to top

Moscow Bans Transfer of Human Medical Specimens Apparently seeking to prevent biological terrorism, Russia this week imposed a ban on the removal of all human biological materials from the nation, Kommersant reported today (see GSN, Oct. 3, 2005). The move to ban all such transfers, including hair and blood samples, endangers many Russians whose medical tests are conducted out of the country as well as about 28,000 participants in clinical drug trials, medical officials complained. “If this is true, it is a cannonball to the gut for us,” said Alexei Mashchan, deputy director of the Children's Oncology Center. “This decree will be a serious blow to our nation's health — it will set it back years,” added GlaxoSmithKline spokesman Alexei Brevnov. “It makes conducting clinical trials in Russia much more difficult.” The order took effect Monday and appeared to result from a study by Russian intelligence services that accused Western nations of developing “genetically engineered biological weapons” that could target Russian ethnic groups, Kommersant reported (Kommersant, May 30). Banning all biological exports in response to that threat was a ridiculous move argued another researcher. “Forbidding the shipment of one's DNA abroad is impossible — I am my DNA,” said Nikolai Yankovsky, head of the Russian Institute of Sciences' General Genetics Institute (Thomson Financial/Yahoo!News, May 30). Back to top       Malaysia Drafts Biological Security Measures The Malaysian government has begun drafting a bill to improve biological safety and security in the nation and the region, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi announced Monday (see GSN, June 1, 2005). The measures in the bill would “create a robust legal framework for managing biosafety issues.  We are confident that the resulting legal framework would facilitate a secure regime for the handling of hazardous biological materials,” he told a biological security conference in Kuala Lumpur. Badawi warned that scientific advances, combined with the ever-growing ease of international travel, have created dangerous biological risks. “Even in peacetime, the importance of biosafety and biosecurity cannot be underestimated.  In the age of biological weapons and global terrorism, the urgency of biosafety and biosecurity takes on a whole new dimension,” he said. “We cannot afford to be lax, and we must always be vigilant, if we are to ensure that public health and national security remain secure,” he added.  “If we fail, then we may find that there will be a heavy price to pay for our failure” (Malaysian release, May 21). Back to top

U.S. Lawmakers Promote Missile Defense Plans Two U.S. senators plan to reassure Russian lawmakers that U.S. plans to deploy missile defenses in Eastern Europe would not threaten Russian security, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, May 25). Senators Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) were scheduled today to begin two days of talks with Russian officials, including legislators from the Federation Council, Russia’s upper house of parliament. U.S. plans to field 10 missile interceptors in Poland and a missile defense radar in the Czech Republic have fueled Russian concerns about U.S. intentions. “We are still convinced that the only target of that shield would be not the purely hypothetical threat that might come from Iran or some other remote state, but the only real target will be our country,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said yesterday. “This is a relic of Cold War thinking,” said Lott.  The U.S. interceptors would be “about defensive capability, not about offensive strikes. ... I thought we were over that.” One Russian lawmaker partially agreed with Lott. “We consider any American missile and any American radar in Europe as a kind of remnant of the Cold War, because many of us do have that Cold War-style mentality,” said Mikhail Margelov, chairman of the Federation Council's foreign affairs committee.  “Many people are scared about American military activity in Europe, especially on Russian borders” (Douglas Birch, Associated Press/Washington Post, May 30). Back to top

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