Nonproliferation News - December 18, 2009

FISSILE MATERIAL
Russia, U.S. close to nuclear pact: report
Reuters by Guy Faulconbridge

Inside the Ring
Washington Times by Bill Gertz

Nearing New Arms Pact, U.S. and Russia Look Beyond It
NYT by Peter Baker

A plan to eliminate nuclear weapons
FT by Gareth Evans and Yoriko Kawaguchi

EAST ASIA
1. US proposes liaison office in N.Korea: report
AFP
The United States has proposed setting up a liaison office in North Korea if the communist country returns to six-party nuclear disarmament talks, a report said Friday.

2. Russia says sanctions against North Korea must continue
RIA Novosti
UN sanctions against North Korea must continue until it halts its nuclear program, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Borodavkin said on Thursday.

MIDDLE EAST
3. Iran repeats offer for nuclear fuel swap
PressTV
Iran's top nuclear official has reiterated that Tehran is ready to swap low enriched uranium with nuclear fuel on its southern Kish Island.

4. Iran says to start full-scale enrichment by March 2011
Reuters by Parisa Hafezi
Iran will start full-scale uranium enrichment production by March 2011 with advanced models of centrifuges, the Islamic state's nuclear chief told the semi- official Fars news agency on Friday.

5. Iran making new model centrifuges for nuke program
AP by Ali Akbar Dareini
Iran's nuclear chief said Friday the country has started making more efficient models of centrifuges that will be in use in its nuclear program by early 2011.

6. International Community Looks at Options to Stop Iran From Producing Nuclear Weapons
VOA News by Andre de Nesnera
A key issue facing the Obama administration is how to curtail what are believed to be Iran's nuclear weapons ambitions.

7. Iran slams US at climate talks, lays claim to nuclear energy
AFP
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad lashed the United States on Thursday as an oil-addicted warmonger and insisted every nation have access to "clean and renewable energy sources", including nuclear.

8. Nuclear deal seen as model to limit atomic arms
AP by Robert Burns
The U.S. and a key Persian Gulf ally put into force Thursday a landmark agreement on nuclear cooperation that Washington sees as a model for limiting the spread of nuclear weapons.

9. 'No need for nukes'
Al-Ahram Weekly by Gamal Essam El-Din
For days now, independent and opposition members of the consultative upper house, the Shura Council, have been orchestrating a surprise call for Egypt to develop a long-term nuclear weapons programme.

SOUTH ASIA

RUSSIA/FSU
10. Russia, U.S. close to nuclear pact: report
Reuters by Guy Faulconbridge
Russia and the United States are very close to resolving all remaining questions on a new treaty to slash vast Cold War arsenals of nuclear weapons, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

11. Nearing New Arms Pact, U.S. and Russia Look Beyond It
NYT by Peter Baker
Eight months, three presidential meetings, countless Geneva negotiating sessions and one missed deadline later, the United States and Russia appear close to agreement on a new arms control treaty that will reduce their strategic nuclear arsenals by at least one quarter. But even if the two sides manage to bring home a deal in coming days as they hope, that will be the easy part.

12. Inside the Ring
Washington Times by Bill Gertz
All 40 Republican senators and one independent wrote to President Obama on Wednesday reminding him that the current defense authorization law links modernization of the aging U.S. nuclear arsenal to further U.S.-Russian arms reductions.

13. ROAR: “Russia could get right for first nuclear strike”
Russian Times by Sergey Borisov
The country’s military doctrine will remain defensive even if it contains pre-emptive measures, analysts say.

EUROPE

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

MISCELLANEOUS

OPINION
14. A plan to eliminate nuclear weapons
FT by Gareth Evans and Yoriko Kawaguchi
It is sheer dumb luck that since Nagasaki no nuclear weapon has exploded in a major population centre by accident, miscalculation or design. Some 23,000 warheads still exist, nearly half actively deployed, and more than 2,000 on dangerously high alert. Command and control systems are much more susceptible to error than commonly believed, and it is not beyond the capacity of terrorists to buy or build nuclear weapons. Climate change is not the only man-made threat capable of destroying life on this planet as we know it. The prospect of a nuclear catastrophe defies complacency, and maintaining the status quo indefinitely is not an option.

15. Realities of disarmament
Japan Times by Ramesh Thakur
The international commission on nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament, chaired by former foreign ministers Gareth Evans of Australia and Yoriko Kawaguchi of Japan, faced two hurdles even before its work was completed.

16. Peaceful atom: providing safe nuclear energy development in the Middle East
RIA Novosti by Anton Khlopkov
The Middle Eastern states are actively seeking nuclear power. Of the Gulf countries, excluding Iran and Iraq, almost 20 agreements and MOUs (memorandums of understanding) on nuclear cooperation were signed during the last 18 months, with countries, possessing advanced nuclear technology, including Canada, China, France, Japan, Russia, South Korea, the U.K, and the U.S.

17. Kissinger: How to make progress on North Korea
WP by Henry A. Kissinger
The American special representative for North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, returned from Pyongyang last week after unusually benign conversations. The North Korean government affirmed "the need to resume six-power talks" on the nuclear disarmament of the Korean Peninsula. It added, however, the proviso that the United States and Korea "needed to cooperate to narrow the remaining differences" before it would rejoin the established six-power diplomatic framework, from which it walked out a year ago while abandoning all the undertakings it had made during those talks. In other words, Pyongyang seeks separate negotiations with the United States while keeping the other parties out of the diplomatic process, at least for a while.

18. Running out of time
Al-Ahram Weekly by Mohamed Said Idris
Iran is perhaps facing the toughest challenge yet to its favoured policy for achieving its strategic goals regarding its nuclear programme, namely wasting time. It utilises this to deal with Western countries which oppose its possession of a military nuclear programme or an advanced nuclear programme, which could enable it to produce nuclear weapons any time it chooses.

19. How to Stop Iran
WSJ by Olivier Debouzy
The lack of progress in negotiations with Iran, together with the latest report from the International Atomic Energy Agency and Iran's announcement that it would develop new enrichment facilities, all point toward an inconvenient truth: Iran is not only not serious about negotiating in good faith. It is also very likely that it has, for more than a decade now, concealed a significant part of what appears to be a major nuclear military effort. This week's revelations about Iran's recent work on warhead design underscore the point. No country has ever gone so far along the road toward the acquisition of a nuclear military capability without actually developing one.

20. Iran blasts off ahead of countdown
Asia Times by Kaveh L. Afrasiabi
As if tensions were not high enough, Iran on Wednesday test-fired an upgraded version of the Sajjil-2, a solid-state, medium-range, ballistic missile, drawing immediate criticism from the United States for the "provocative" act.

21. A thousand and one excuses
Economist
IS IRAN trying to build a bomb, or is its nuclear work aimed merely at keeping the lights on? Gathering evidence, and Iran’s refusal to heed a string of UN Security Council resolutions and stop its suspect activities, make the question seem quaint.

22. Iranian Scorecard
WSJ
In his Inaugural address, President Obama promised the world's dictators—with Iran plainly in mind—that he would "extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist." Here's a status report on the mullahs' knuckles.

23. What I See on the Frontline in Iran
WSJ by Heshmat Tabarzadi
When massive numbers of Iranians took to the streets following the sham election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June, the regime hoped to quash the protests with intimidation and force. It has failed. The latest evidence of the democratic movement's force? Student Day earlier this month.