Nonproliferation News - November 13, 2009

FISSILE MATERIAL
Russia Seeks Removal of U.S. Observers Under New Nuclear Accord
Bloomberg by Lyubov Pronina

Tauscher promotes new missile defense plan before trip to Europe
Foreign Policy (The Cable) by Josh Rogin

Diplomats: Iran nuke plant 7 yrs old
AP by George Jahn

Pakistanis Worry About US Nuclear Intentions
NYT by AP

EAST ASIA
1. Hatoyama, Obama to release joint nuclear disarmament statement
Mainichi Daily News
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and U.S. President Barack Obama will reiterate their intent to pursue a world without nuclear weapons following their summit meeting Friday, government officials said.

2. NKorea says SKorea faces consequences over clash
AP by Hyung-Jin Kim
North Korea threatened South Korea on Thursday with possible punishment over a skirmish that left one of its warships badly damaged and a crew member dead.

MIDDLE EAST
3. Diplomats: Iran nuke plant 7 yrs old
AP by George Jahn
Iran's recently revealed uranium enrichment hall is a highly fortified underground space that appears too small to house a civilian nuclear program, but large enough to serve for military activities, diplomats told The Associated Press on Thursday.

4. Turkey says willing to store uranium from Iran
Reuters
Turkey would be willing to store enriched uranium from Iran, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said on Friday, responding to a United Nations suggestion that Iran send its low-grade enriched uranium to a third country.

5. Iran armed forces chief backs nuclear deal
AFP
Iranian armed forces chief of staff General Hassan Firouzabadi said on Friday he backed proposals for Tehran to ship out most of its stocks of low-enriched uranium in return for fuel for a reactor designed to produce medical isotopes.

6. Iran's struggle with America should continue: cleric
Reuters
Iran must continue its struggle against the United States, a hardline cleric said on Friday a day after Washington renewed long-standing U.S. financial sanctions against Iran.

7. Disagreement in Middle East over Iran's nuclear program
LA Times by Borzou Daragahi
It's a sentiment bubbling just below the surface of a lively and charged televised debate over whether to trust Iran not to build a nuclear weapon. "Why in the first place should Iran seek the trust of anyone?" he says. "Iran is an independent, sovereign country, and it has every single right to defend itself. If it wants a bomb, definitely it should have one."

8. Tehran Turmoil Clouds Prospects for Captive U.S. Hikers
Time by Andrew Lee Butters
In the best-case scenario, the Iranian government would use the hikers' release as leverage in negotiations with the U.S. But Iran's leaders appear to have cooled somewhat on reaching out to the West, and that could be bad news for Americans in their custody.

SOUTH ASIA
9. Pakistanis Worry About US Nuclear Intentions
NYT by AP
In Washington, the ultimate Pakistani nightmare is that the country's nuclear arsenal could fall into the hands of Taliban militants or rogue soldiers. In Islamabad, though, talk of nuclear weapons taps into a very different fear: Washington.

10. A nuclear power's act of proliferation
WP by R. Jeffrey Smith and Joby Warrick
In 1982, a Pakistani military C-130 left the western Chinese city of Urumqi with a highly unusual cargo: enough weapons-grade uranium for two atomic bombs, according to accounts written by the father of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program, Abdul Qadeer Khan, and provided to The Washington Post.

RUSSIA/FSU
11. Russia Seeks Removal of U.S. Observers Under New Nuclear Accord
Bloomberg by Lyubov Pronina
Russia seeks to overcome “a range of problems,” including the presence of U.S. monitors at a ballistic-missile plant, as it pushes to meet a December deadline for a new bilateral nuclear arms agreement, the head of the Russian military’s General Staff said.

12. Russian general warns of problems in nuclear talks
Reuters by Conor Sweeney
Russia's top general said on Thursday that problems remained in concluding a nuclear arms treaty with the United States, Interfax news agency reported, weeks before the current START agreement expires.

EUROPE
13. Tauscher promotes new missile defense plan before trip to Europe
Foreign Policy (The Cable) by Josh Rogin
Tauscher previewed her trip and talked about the status of missile defense plans and other strategic initiatives at the George Washington University on Tuesday. Primarily, she rejected the contention that the administration had abandoned Polish and Czech missile defense plans. Both countries have been offered alternative ways to participate in missile defense going forward, she said.

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

MISCELLANEOUS

OPINION
14. Prologue for a mistaken policy
Washington Times by Louis Rene Beres, Thomas McInerney and Paul E. Vallely
What sort of national security policy can we expect from a president who seeks a "world free of nuclear weapons?" In principle, this is a reasonable objective. In reality, however, it is preposterous.