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NUKEWARS
After Iran deal, world looks to jump-start nuclear disarmament
By Carole LANDRY
United Nations, United States (AFP) April 24, 2015


US says learned from N.Korea, Iran nuclear deal 'different'
Washington April 24, 2015 - The United States said Thursday that any deal reached with Iran to curb its nuclear ambitions would be "fundamentally different" from a pact sealed with North Korea that later unraveled. "The restrictions, inspections and verifications measures imposed on Iran by a comprehensive plan of action will go far beyond those placed on North Korea in the 1990s and the 2000s," said acting State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf. She was quizzed about reports that Chinese nuclear experts believe North Korea may already have a nuclear arsenal of 20 warheads and the uranium enrichment capacity to double that figure by next year. The estimate, which The Wall Street Journal said was relayed to US nuclear specialists in a closed-door meeting in February, is significantly higher than any previously known Chinese assessment. It also exceeds recent estimates by independent US experts which put the North's current arsenal at between 10 and 16 nuclear weapons. Harf refused to discuss what the US administration estimates Pyongyang's current stockpile of nuclear weapons to be. But she refuted allegations from critics of the current Iran nuclear negotiations that the situation in North Korea should raise concern. "The comprehensive deal we are seeking to negotiate with Iran is fundamentally different than what we did in terms of our approach to North Korea," Harf told reporters. "In the early 1990s, North Korea had produced weapons-grade plutonium prior to agreeing to limited IAEA inspections. After the agreed framework, they agreed to more intrusive inspections; but in 2002, when they finally broke its commitments, its violations were detected by the IAEA." And she acknowledged that part of the reason for the in-depth, complex technical annexes to an Iran deal was "because of the lessons we learned from the North Korea situation." International six-party talks aimed at reining in Pyongyang's nuclear program collapsed in 2008. North Korea carried out nuclear tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013, and has an active ballistic missile development program.

Nuclear powers join non-nuclear nations on Monday to launch a conference on non-proliferation, buoyed by the Iran deal but alarmed by slow-moving US-Russian disarmament.

US Secretary of State John Kerry will address the conference that reviews the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and he may meet on the sidelines to discuss the hard-fought Iran deal with Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

Work on the framework Iran agreement must be completed by June 30 but it is already earning praise as a potential happy ending to one of the world's most vexing nuclear disputes.

Despite applause for the Iran deal, delegates from more than 150 countries are heading into the month-long conference with a sense of gloom over the lack of progress on disarmament and the deadlocked plan for a nuclear weapons-free zone for the Middle East.

The United States and Russia have made little headway in cutting their nuclear stockpiles since 2011, and the crisis over Ukraine is stoking distrust, dimming prospects for future cooperation.

"We have a stalling in the path to a nuclear-free world," Angela Kane, the UN high representative for disarmament affairs, said ahead of the gathering at UN headquarters in New York.

Former Australian foreign minister Gareth Evans, who chaired the international commission on the NPT, described the state of play as "one of paralysis, of minimal forward-movement and of backsliding."

- Grand bargain -

Reached in 1968, the NPT is seen as a grand bargain between five nuclear powers -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States - and non-nuclear states which agreed to give up atomic weapon ambitions in exchange for disarmament pledges.

But 45 years after the NPT entered into force, non-nuclear states are feeling increasingly frustrated and the global consensus on how to move toward a nuclear-free world is under severe strain.

"The nuclear-weapons states are not living up to their side of the bargain," Kane said.

"Right now, the non-nuclear states need to be given the sense that they are taken seriously."

Delegates to the NPT conference are working on an "outcome document" laying out priorities for the next five years, but some diplomats have not ruled out that disagreements could lead to a collapse of the talks.

Pessimism has also focused on Washington's $1 trillion modernization plan for its nuclear forces that is compounding fears that the United States is not seriously working toward reducing its stockpile.

Another point of contention is a proposed nuclear weapons-free zone for the Middle East that has failed to materialize despite a plan at the last NPT conference to begin talks on the proposal in 2012.

Kane warned that the next five years will be crucial to ensure that the NPT "retains credibility."

She suggested that there be a roadmap with targets that are "not far off in Never-Never-Land" to reassure non-nuclear states that they have signed on to a treaty that is "worthwhile."

As a stark reminder of the horrors of a nuclear attack, a group of aging Hiroshima survivors are traveling to New York to attend the conference and make a personal appeal for action.


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NUKEWARS
Tricky drafting of Iran nuclear deal begins
Vienna (AFP) April 22, 2015
Iran and major powers on Wednesday began the difficult process of finalising by June 30 a historic deal putting an Iranian nuclear bomb out of reach, three weeks after agreeing the main outlines. Following a negotiating marathon in Switzerland, Iran agreed on April 2 to what US President Barack Obama called a "historic understanding... which, if fully implemented, will prevent (Iran) from ob ... read more


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