Nuclear treaty out of date, says Annan
Pakistan Times Foreign Desk

UNITED NATIONS: The non-proliferation treaty on the spread of nuclear weapons is out of date in the face of new threats and technology and needs to be fixed, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said on Monday.

"The plain fact is that the regime has not kept pace with the march of technology and globalisation, and developments of many kinds in recent years have placed it under great stress," Annan said in opening a month-long UN meeting on the 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Annan said the international community must act to strengthen the NPT before "the gap between promise and performance becomes unbridgeable."

The NPT faces a new era of "rogue" states with alleged nuclear weapons programmes, international nuclear smuggling rings and transnational terrorist groups seeking weapons of mass destruction.

Annan said the 188 nations meeting at UN headquarters "must strengthen confidence in the integrity of the treaty, particularly in the face of the first withdrawal announced by a state." "Unless violations are directly addressed, the most basic collective reassurance on which the treaty rests will be called into serious question," Annan said.

He also said the Vienna-based IAEA should be given more authority to inspect the nuclear programmes of states that are party to the NPT by making an additional protocol for wider inspections to apply to all.

Annan also dealt with the case of Iran, saying the non-proliferation regime "will not be sustainable if scores more states develop the most sensitive phases of the fuel cycle and are equipped with the technology to produce nuclear weapons on short notice."

Annan urged non-weapon states like Iran to step back from the nuclear temptation, and America and Russia to cut back more sharply on their arsenals. All must work toward "a world of reduced nuclear threat and, ultimately, a world free of nuclear weapons," he said. "To prevent that, you must find durable ways to reconcile the right to peaceful uses with the imperative of non-proliferation," the UN chief said.

Iran is showing the strains in the non-proliferation treaty, as the United States claims the Republic is secretly developing atomic weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear power programme that is under IAEA safeguards.

Finally, Annan said that nuclear weapons states must keep their part of the bargain in the NPT and move forward on disarming. "An important step would be for former Cold War rivals to commit themselves, irreversibly, to further cuts in their arsenals so that war heads number in the hundreds and not the thousands," he said.

Mohamed ElBaradei

Following Annan to the UN podium, Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the UN nuclear agency, renewed his call for a temporary moratorium on new fuel-cycle facilities in the world, while new international controls are negotiated.

He offered, meanwhile, to investigate ways to guarantee international supplies of fuel for those who need them. ElBaradei has proposed putting nuclear fuel production under multilateral control, by regional or international bodies. This "Article IV loophole" is expected to be a major issue before the NPT conference, but many other governments also complain the United States and other big powers are moving too slowly toward scrapping their nuclear arms under the NPT.

Foreign ministers from around the world are trying to breathe life into the 35-year-old nuclear disarmament treaty. The United States, in the month-long conference that appears deadlocked before it even began, wants the focus on Iran and North Korea. But the majority of nations complain that the nuclear powers, mainly the United States and Russia, have moved far too slowly in abiding by the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT), which calls for them to move toward dismantling their arsenals.

The 188 members of the 1970 treaty, the cornerstone in arms reduction treaties, meet every five years review progress and set new goals. Only the United States, Russia, Britain, France and China are permitted to have nuclear arms while all other countries vow to give up atomic warheads for good.

Nevertheless, Brazilian Sergio de Queiroz Duarte, president of the conference, said on Friday he expected some movement this week because many countries hold "their cards close to their chest until they have to take a decision." Still, Annan has several times expressed his apprehension that the treaty is fraying. He told a forum in February the NPT "faces serious challenges to its credibility."●