Post by Salem6 on Feb 12, 2004 18:13:22 GMT
By Louis Charbonneau
VIENNA (Reuters) - The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog says the world could be headed for destruction if it does not stop the spread of widely available atomic weapons technology.
In an opinion piece in The New York Times on Thursday, Mohamed ElBaradei wrote that nuclear technology, once virtually inaccessible, can now be obtained through "a sophisticated worldwide network able to deliver systems for producing material usable in weapons".
Above all ElBaradei echoed U.S. President George W. Bush's call in a speech on Wednesday for states to tighten up the control of their companies' nuclear exports.
ElBaradei said through his spokesman Mark Gwozdecky that Bush's speech expressed the same "urgency and concern" the watchdog chief felt about the current proliferation crisis.
"I have laid out some ideas and proposals to that end, including the need for additional authority for the IAEA, much more stringent export control system and accelerated efforts towards nuclear disarmament," he said.
ElBaradei, the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) director-general, wrote that the world must act quickly because inaction would a create a proliferation disaster.
"The supply network will grow, making it easier to acquire nuclear weapon expertise and materials. Eventually, inevitably, terrorists will gain access to such materials and technology, if not actual weapons," he wrote.
"If the world does not change course, we risk self-destruction," ElBaradei said.
The father of Pakistan's atom bomb, Abdul Qadeer Khan, admitted last week that he and scientists from his Khan Research Laboratories in Pakistan leaked nuclear secrets.
They are believed to have been part of a global nuclear black market organised to help countries under embargo such as Iran, North Korea and Libya skirt international sanctions and obtain nuclear technology that could be used to make weapons.
ElBaradei said the 1968 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the global pact aimed at stopping the spread of atomic weapons, needed to be revisited and toughened to bring it in line with the demands of the 21st century.
He said it should not be possible to withdraw from the NPT, as North Korea did last year, while the tougher inspections in the IAEA's Additional Protocol should be mandatory in all countries. Currently fewer than 40 of the more than 180 NPT signatories have approved the protocol.
NUCLEAR EXPORT CONTROLS
ElBaradei said the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), a 40-nation group of countries that work together to prevent the export of peaceful nuclear technology to countries that might want weapons, needed to be transformed into a binding treaty.
"The current system relies on a gentlemen's agreement that is not only non-binding, but also limited in its membership: it does not include many countries with growing industrial capacity," he wrote.
"And even some members fail to control the exports of companies unaffiliated with government enterprise," he added.
ElBaradei called for the production of fissile material for weapons to be halted and enrichment technology restricted.
He said people who assist proliferators should be treated as criminals and states should eradicate loopholes that enable sensitive exports to slip past regulators.
He also called on the nuclear powers who had signed the NPT -- the United States, China, Russia, Britain and France -- to move towards disarmament as called for in the pact.
In a clear jab at the United States, which plans to forge ahead with research into the so-called mini nukes, ElBaradei said the world must drop the idea that nuclear weapons are fine in the hands of some countries and bad in the hands of others.
"We must abandon the unworkable notion that it is morally reprehensible for some countries to pursue weapons of mass destruction yet morally acceptable for others to rely on them for security -- and indeed to continue to refine their capacities and postulate plans for their use," he said.
www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=457314§ion=news
VIENNA (Reuters) - The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog says the world could be headed for destruction if it does not stop the spread of widely available atomic weapons technology.
In an opinion piece in The New York Times on Thursday, Mohamed ElBaradei wrote that nuclear technology, once virtually inaccessible, can now be obtained through "a sophisticated worldwide network able to deliver systems for producing material usable in weapons".
Above all ElBaradei echoed U.S. President George W. Bush's call in a speech on Wednesday for states to tighten up the control of their companies' nuclear exports.
ElBaradei said through his spokesman Mark Gwozdecky that Bush's speech expressed the same "urgency and concern" the watchdog chief felt about the current proliferation crisis.
"I have laid out some ideas and proposals to that end, including the need for additional authority for the IAEA, much more stringent export control system and accelerated efforts towards nuclear disarmament," he said.
ElBaradei, the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) director-general, wrote that the world must act quickly because inaction would a create a proliferation disaster.
"The supply network will grow, making it easier to acquire nuclear weapon expertise and materials. Eventually, inevitably, terrorists will gain access to such materials and technology, if not actual weapons," he wrote.
"If the world does not change course, we risk self-destruction," ElBaradei said.
The father of Pakistan's atom bomb, Abdul Qadeer Khan, admitted last week that he and scientists from his Khan Research Laboratories in Pakistan leaked nuclear secrets.
They are believed to have been part of a global nuclear black market organised to help countries under embargo such as Iran, North Korea and Libya skirt international sanctions and obtain nuclear technology that could be used to make weapons.
ElBaradei said the 1968 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the global pact aimed at stopping the spread of atomic weapons, needed to be revisited and toughened to bring it in line with the demands of the 21st century.
He said it should not be possible to withdraw from the NPT, as North Korea did last year, while the tougher inspections in the IAEA's Additional Protocol should be mandatory in all countries. Currently fewer than 40 of the more than 180 NPT signatories have approved the protocol.
NUCLEAR EXPORT CONTROLS
ElBaradei said the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), a 40-nation group of countries that work together to prevent the export of peaceful nuclear technology to countries that might want weapons, needed to be transformed into a binding treaty.
"The current system relies on a gentlemen's agreement that is not only non-binding, but also limited in its membership: it does not include many countries with growing industrial capacity," he wrote.
"And even some members fail to control the exports of companies unaffiliated with government enterprise," he added.
ElBaradei called for the production of fissile material for weapons to be halted and enrichment technology restricted.
He said people who assist proliferators should be treated as criminals and states should eradicate loopholes that enable sensitive exports to slip past regulators.
He also called on the nuclear powers who had signed the NPT -- the United States, China, Russia, Britain and France -- to move towards disarmament as called for in the pact.
In a clear jab at the United States, which plans to forge ahead with research into the so-called mini nukes, ElBaradei said the world must drop the idea that nuclear weapons are fine in the hands of some countries and bad in the hands of others.
"We must abandon the unworkable notion that it is morally reprehensible for some countries to pursue weapons of mass destruction yet morally acceptable for others to rely on them for security -- and indeed to continue to refine their capacities and postulate plans for their use," he said.
www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=457314§ion=news