Nonproliferation News - September 18, 2009

FISSILE MATERIAL (Top Stories)
Nuke agency says Iran can make bomb
AP by George Jahn

IAEA denies report it is sure Iran seeking atom bomb
Reuters by Mark Heinrich

Poland says still to get U.S. Patriot missiles
Reuters

Move Signals Shift Toward Disarmament
WSJ by Jay Solomon

EAST ASIA
1. North Korea Open to Nuclear Talks as Hu Adds Pressure
Bloomberg by Bomi Lim

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il said he’s prepared to resume talks on dismantling his nuclear program after Chinese President Hu Jintao urged his communist neighbor to give up on his atomic weapons ambitions.

2. SKorea: NKorea seeks recognition as nuclear state
AP by Jae-soon Chang

North Korea is insisting on direct talks with the United States in an attempt to obtain recognition as a nuclear state, Seoul's top diplomat said Friday, warning that the North's atomic bombs are intended to target South Korea.

3. North Korea's nuclear vows fail to sway skeptics
Reuters by Jack Kim

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il told a visiting Chinese envoy he will work to end his country's nuclear arms program through multilateral talks in an apparent breakthrough, but similar vows in the past have not been met with action.

4. US to see if Japan has 'revised' thinking on NKorea
AFP

A top US envoy is in Tokyo this week in part to determine if Japan's new government has "revised" the country's approach to North Korea's nuclear disarmament, the State Department said Thursday.

5. U.S. expected to decide soon on direct talks with N.K.: Seoul minister
Yonhap News by Tony Chang

The United States is expected to decide soon on whether to hold bilateral talks with North Korea on its denuclearization, based on consultations with other partners in the six-party framework, Seoul's foreign minister said Thursday.

MIDDLE EAST
6. Nuke agency says Iran can make bomb
AP by George Jahn

Iran experts at the U.N nuclear monitoring agency believe Tehran has the ability to make a nuclear bomb and worked on developing a missile system that can carry an atomic warhead, according to a confidential report seen by The Associated Press.

7. IAEA denies report it is sure Iran seeking atom bomb
Reuters by Mark Heinrich

The U.N. nuclear agency has no proof that Iran has or once had a covert atomic bomb program, it said on Thursday, dismissing a report that it had concluded Iran was on its way to producing nuclear weapons. The International Atomic Energy Agency reaffirmed IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei's September 9 comment that allegations the agency was sitting on evidence of Iranian bomb work were "politically motivated and baseless."

8. Iran's Envoy Sees Upcoming Talks as an Opening
Washington Post by Joby Warrick

A top Iranian negotiator on nuclear matters has given a hopeful prognosis for upcoming talks with the United States and other world powers, calling the discussions a "real, new window of opportunity" and suggesting that the Islamic republic is prepared to address U.S. concerns about its nuclear intentions.

9. Iranian Nuclear-Weapon Program Still Suspended, U.S. Intel Agencies Assert
GSN

U.S. intelligence agencies believe that Iran's formal effort to design and build a nuclear weapon has remained suspended since 2003, but that Tehran is keeping open the option of reviving the program, Newsweek reported yesterday (see GSN, Sept. 16).

10. Ahmadinejad: Iran will never stop nuclear program
Reuters

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Thursday that Iran would "never" abandon its disputed nuclear program to appease Western critics.

11. More IAEA nations back non-nuclear Mideast in vote
Reuters by Mark Heinrich

The U.N. nuclear assembly on Thursday adopted a resolution urging all Middle East nations to foreswear atomic bombs in a symbolic vote showing increasing consensus for the measure.

12. Russian FM says no new sanctions on Iran
AP

Russia's foreign minister says Moscow firmly opposes any new sanctions against Iran.

13. The Iran Experiment
WSJ

The great Iran-engagement experiment is about to begin. If it doesn't succeed, it will be followed very shortly by more of the great Iran-sanctions experiment.

SOUTH ASIA

RUSSIA/FSU
14. Obama’s Missile Plan Might Not Satisfy Russia
NYT by Peter Baker

Even before President Obama reached the lectern to announce his plans to reconfigure missile defense plans in Europe, critics at home and abroad were accusing him of knuckling under to Russia. And to be sure, Russia was happy to be rid of former President George W. Bush’s planned missile shield.

15. A Cautious Russia Praises Obama Move
Washington Post by Phillip P. Pan

Russia expressed cautious approval of President Obama's decision Thursday to overhaul U.S. missile defense. But reaction was mixed in Poland and the Czech Republic, where some voiced relief and others anger that a contentious proposal to base the shield in their countries had been scrapped.

EUROPE
16. New Missile Shield Strategy Scales Back Reagan’s Vision
NYT by David E. Sanger and William J. Broad

The new plan that President Obama laid out for a missile shield against Iran on Thursday turns Ronald Reagan’s vision of a Star Wars system on its head: Rather than focusing first on protecting the continental United States, it shifts the immediate effort to defending Europe and the Middle East.

17. Analysis: Obama abandons view of Iran, not Europe
AP by Robert Burns

The Obama administration is not abandoning missile defense in Europe, but it is junking the previous administration's view of the missile threat posed by Iran and what that means for Europe.

18. Obama cancels missile defence and changes transatlantic politics
Globe and Mail by Doug Saunders

A flood of new political and military possibilities was unleashed Thursday when U.S. President Barack Obama pulled the plug on a proposed missile-defence system in Eastern Europe that has served for two years as an anger-provoking barrier between Russia and the West.

19. Bipartisan Senate concern over Obama decision on missile defense
The Hill by J. Taylor Rushing and Sam Youngman

Senators reacted with bipartisan concern Thursday over the Obama administration’s decision to scrap a missile defense system in Eastern Europe, saying Congress and foreign allies were kept in the dark.

20. Poland says still to get U.S. Patriot missiles
Reuters

The United States will go ahead with deployment of a Patriot battery on Polish soil and the missiles will be armed, Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said on Thursday, shortly after Washington said it was overhauling plans for a missile defense shield in central Europe.

21. Polish, Czech governments undamaged by U.S. shield decision
Reuters by Gareth Jones and Jan Lopatka

Polish and Czech right-wingers accused Washington of caving in to Russia after it dropped plans for a missile shield on their soil, but the move is not expected to harm the governments in Warsaw and Prague.

22. Poles, Czechs: US missile defense shift a betrayal
AP by Vanessa Gera

Poles and Czechs voiced deep concern Friday at President Barack Obama's decision to scrap a Bush-era missile defense shield planned for their countries.

23. NATO proposes new era of cooperation with Russia
Reuters by David Brunnstrom

NATO proposed a new era of cooperation with the United States and Russia on Friday, calling for joint work on missile defense systems after Washington scrapped a planned anti-missile system.

24. Can Britain still afford nuclear weapons ?
Reuters by Stephen Addison

As the public spending axe starts swinging, attention inevitably turns northwards to the chilly waters of the Clyde where Britain’s nuclear deterrent is based.

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

MISCELLANEOUS
25. Move Signals Shift Toward Disarmament
WSJ by Jay Solomon

The U.S. shift on missile defense is part of a broader White House strategy to signal its commitment to disarmament and moving toward eventually eliminating America's nuclear-weapons stockpile.

OPINION
26. Obama's Missile Offense
WSJ

President Obama promised he would win America friends where, under George W. Bush, it had antagonists. The reality is that the U.S. is working hard to create antagonists where it previously had friends.

27. Missile Sense
NYT

President Obama made a sound strategic decision, scrapping former President George W. Bush’s technologically dubious plan to build a long-range missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic. Instead, the Pentagon will deploy a less-ambitious — but more feasible — system of interceptors and sensors, first on ships and later on land.

28. Placating Russia Won't Work
Washington Post by David J. Kramer

Russian leaders never liked the idea that the United States, Poland and the Czech Republic were cooperating on missile defense to confront an emerging Iranian threat. The move will be perceived as a concession to get Russian cooperation on a new START agreement, but won’t achieve greater Russian cooperation.

29. The New Defense Realism
Foreign Policy by Joseph Cirincione

The Obama administration's decision announced today to cancel the deeply flawed antimissile systems in Eastern Europe is sound policy based on the best intelligence and technical assessments. U.S. President Barack Obama replaces a system that did not work against a threat that did not exist with weapons that can defend against the real Iranian missile capability. Better still, he NATO-izes the system to strengthen the alliance, not divide it.

30. A New Nuclear-Arms Race
WSJ by Jack David and Melanie Kirkpatrick

Call it a shot heard round the world. The Obama Administration's announcement yesterday that it is abandoning a Bush-era plan for a missile-defense system in Europe is not just about Europe. It also makes Americans more vulnerable and the U.S. a less reliable ally. Moreover, it will likely go down in history as the start of a new nuclear arms race, with increased proliferation and more countries going nuclear.

31. Opinion: Obama can reach for transformative nuclear policy
San Jose Mercury News by Steven Andreasen

Obama has a shift to broadly change US nuclear policy.  The Nuclear Posture Review will be a key test.