Editorial: Cut the bluster in nuclear disarmament talks

Editorial: Cut the bluster in nuclear talks The Dominion Post | Monday, 16 February 2009

Few issues in international affairs are as riddled with cant and hypocrisy as that of nuclear proliferation, writes The Dominion Post.

The United States regards Iran’s nuclear programme which the Iranians maintain is only for the peaceful generation of power as abhorrent and and a huge danger to world peace. At the same time it turns a blind eye to the nuclear programme of Israel, which has refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

US President Barack Obama’s answer when asked if he knew of any nuclear power in the Middle East was an evasive warning of the dangers of an arms race in the region. If he had chosen to answer honestly, he would acknowledged that Israel, which will neither confirm nor deny whether it has the bomb, is thought to have about 200 nuclear warheads. He would have pointed out that the Israelis will not allow international surveillance of its Dimona nuclear plant, in the southern Negev desert.

Similarly, the US was equivocal in its response when Pakistan became a nuclear power, and agreed to share nuclear technology with India, another country that joined the nuclear club after the non-proliferation treaty.

It is also easy to forget that the non-proliferation treaty was founded on a bargain. Countries without the bomb agreed not to go chasing after it; those with the bomb agreed to work towards getting rid of their arsenals. There has been much talk and some progress in achieving that but thousands of weapons still remain.

One estimate, by the Federation of American Scientists, is that the US still has 9400 warheads, though only 2200 operationally deployed in a strategic role, and with a good proportion of the others retired and awaiting being dismantled. The same organisation estimates Russia has about 2700 deployed strategic warheads, but is also reducing its arsenal and intends to be down to 1800 by 2015.

Those numbers are still an obscenity that defies belief and, especially in the case of Russia, with its rundown infrastructure, terrifyingly high……………………….Mr Obama’s desire to “restart” the conversation with Russia over nuclear weapon reductions and work on further cutbacks in the two countries’ arsenals is welcome. His recognition that only then will Russia and the US “have the standing to go to other countries and start stitching back together the non-proliteration treaties that, frankly, have been weakened over the last several years” is exactly what is needed in both Washington and Moscow.

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