Nonproliferation News - September 22, 2009

FISSILE MATERIAL
Grand bargain: rhetoric vs. the real deal
Korea Herald by Kim Ji-hyun

U.S. and Iran Heading Into Talks Worlds Apart
Washington Post by Glenn Kessler and Thomas Erdbrink

Israel says still has military option on Iran
Reuters by Alastair Macdonald

Obama Missile Decision May Smooth U.S.-Russia Arms Talks
Washington Post by Mary Beth Sheridan and Phillip P. Pan

EAST ASIA
1. S.Korea says North must seize diplomatic chance
Reuters

South Korea's president urged rival North Korea to seize a "last chance" to shed its nuclear weapons in exchange for aid for its struggling economy and an end to diplomatic isolation.

2. US: NK Likely to Accept Conditions for Nuke Talks
Dong-A Ilbo

A leading U.S. diplomat has said North Korea will apparently accept conditions to return to the six-way nuclear talks.

3. Grand bargain: rhetoric vs. the real deal
Korea Herald by Kim Ji-hyun

The contents of the latest overture, therefore, were by no means anything new, Foreign Ministry officials said. But they noted it was significant in that Seoul is continuing to adhere to the policy of refusing to buy the same horse twice.

4. Tensions have eased in North
Straits Times by AFP

CHINA said Tuesday tensions had eased on the Korean peninsula, just four days after the North's leader said he was willing to engage in talks on his nation's disputed nuclear programme.

MIDDLE EAST
5. Iran Says Makes New Model Of Nuclear Centrifuges
NYT by Reuters

Iran has built a new generation of centrifuges for enriching uranium and is testing them, the official news agency IRNA quoted its nuclear energy agency chief as saying on Tuesday.

6. U.S. and Iran Heading Into Talks Worlds Apart
Washington Post by Glenn Kessler and Thomas Erdbrink

Diplomats from the United States and Iran will cross paths this week at the U.N. General Assembly, but the gulf between the two nations is likely to be evident. Officials and analysts offer little hope that much will change by Oct. 1, when the countries will join other nations for talks on Tehran's nuclear program and international aspirations.

7. Israel says still has military option on Iran
Reuters by Alastair Macdonald

Israel has not given up the option of a military response to Tehran's nuclear programme, senior officials said on Monday, after Russia's president said his Israeli counterpart assured him it would not attack Iran.

8. Bill Clinton says US must approach Iran carefully
AP

Former President Bill Clinton says Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is "lashing out at the world" right now and that it's important for U.S. leaders to figure out why.

9. Iranian president says no power dare to invade Iran
Xinhua

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad addressed a military parade in Tehran on Tuesday that no power dare to invade Iran.
 
10. Iran and IAEA re-enter missile row
Asia Times by Gareth Porter

Iran stopped meeting with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) last year over Western allegations of covert Iranian nuclear weapons work because the nuclear agency was demanding access to the designs for its Shahab-3 missile and other secret military data, according to both Iranian and IAEA officials.

SOUTH ASIA
11. India seeks out Britain, France, Russia over NPT, CTBT
Hindustan Times by Indo-Asian News Service

India is concerned about a proposed UN Security Council resolution urging countries to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) and has contacted Britain, Russia and France to ensure that its nuclear deals are not be affected, National Security Advisor MK Narayanan said.

RUSSIA/FSU
12. Russia, U.S. Quit Race to Replace START Before December Deadline
GSN

U.S. and Russian diplomats have effectively abandoned efforts to negotiate a replacement to the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty ahead of the pact's Dec. 5 expiration date, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, Sept. 14).

13. Experts: US, Russia face tough arms control talks
AP

Russian military experts say Moscow and Washington must still overcome some key stumbling blocks in negotiating a new nuclear arms reduction treaty.

14. Obama Missile Decision May Smooth U.S.-Russia Arms Talks
Washington Post by Mary Beth Sheridan and Phillip P. Pan

President Obama's decision to scrap a planned missile defense system that had infuriated Russia is expected to produce one quick payback: smoother talks between the two nuclear giants on renegotiating their most important arms-reduction treaty. But U.S. and Russian officials say it is too late to replace the pact before it expires in December.

15. Russia Responds to Obama U-Turn With Small Thaw
WSJ by Gregory L. White and Marc Champion

Russia began to signal a small thaw in relations with the West on Friday in the wake of the U.S. cancellation of an antimissile defense system in Eastern Europe, as NATO offered a reset of its own thorny ties with Moscow.

16. RF-US coop on START depends on US actions in ABM area-experts
Itar-Tass

Cooperation between Russia and the United States in the strategic offensive arms area (START) will depend on Washington’s implementation of its plans for the new architecture of the ABM, hold experts on armaments.

17. Russia Tries to Control the Reset Button
NYT by John Vinocur

When Russia issues a reminder that it wants to buy an advanced, helicopter-carrying warship from France that’s built for amphibious assaults — hello all you folks along the Black, Baltic and Caspian Seas — then it’s pressing deeper its own reset button on altered relations with the United States and NATO.

18. Russia general says missile plan not shelved
Reuters

Russia's top general said on Monday that plans to deploy missiles in an enclave next to Poland had not been shelved, despite a decision by the United States to rethink plans for missile defense in Europe.

19. General says Russia favours only joint missile defence
Channel News Asia by AFP

Russia is opposed to any form of missile defence proposed by the United States which excludes Russian involvement, the country's top general said on Monday.

EUROPE
20. Turkey unwilling to become fulcrum of new missile shield - report
The Sofia Echo by Nick Iliev

Turkey's plans to buy missile systems from the US should not be interpreted as a willingness to host missile defence shield components on its territory, Turkish daily Today's Zaman said on September 21.

21. Why Europe welcomes US missile defense shield decision
CSM by Robert Marquand

With President Barack Obama facing Republican charges that backing off a missile shield in eastern Europe is appeasing Russia and abandoning Poland, European officials are strongly applauding the American decision.

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

MISCELLANEOUS
22. Big week for Obama at UN
BBC by Paul Reynolds

In his first foray into the annual meet-and-greet fest known as the UN General Assembly this week, US President Barack Obama will seek to make his impact on the major issues facing the world.

23. Obama puts foot down on nuclear doctrine
The Age by Julian Borger

PRESIDENT Barack Obama has demanded the Pentagon radically review the US nuclear weapons doctrine to prepare for deep cuts in the US arsenal.

OPINION
24. Ahmadinejad not the bargaining type
The Australian by David Ignatius

THE central question about Iran, as Henry Kissinger has observed, is whether it wants to be a nation or a cause. In the case of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, it's clearly a revolutionary cause. He has said as much himself in an intriguing, occasionally bizarre series of public letters to the US over the past three years.

25. Last Chance for Iran
Washington Post by Daniel R. Coats, Charles S. Robb and Charles F. Wald

History counsels skepticism toward Iran's newly rediscovered willingness to negotiate. Western diplomats have often walked away from such talks empty-handed. We believe, however, that the Oct. 1 talks present an important opportunity to reveal Tehran's intentions and for President Obama to convince other nations of the need for biting sanctions. They must be taken seriously.

26. 'Grand Bargain'
Korea Times

President Lee Myung-bak's proposal of a ``grand bargain" with North Korea to end its nuclear weapons program is seen as an effort to press the recalcitrant communist state harder to return to the six-party talks. It could be North Korea’s last chance to accept an offer to abandon its nuclear program.

27. Still Split on North Korea
Korea Times by Tong Kim

After a new opportunity for direct talks between the United States and North Korea emerged, the Obama administration seems to be going through a deliberation process to determine whether to send Steve Bosworth, the top representative on North Korea, to Pyongyang and what he should say to the North Koreans if he is sent. It is likely that they have already completed such an internal policy review.

28. Asia impacted by US missile shift
Asia Times by Peter J. Brown

The US missile defense shift will impact Asia.  China worries that greater “flexibility” for missile defense will threaten its interests in East Asia.  In Japan, Hatoyama will face tough decisions on missile defense.

29. Can Medvedev help Obama?
RIA Novosti by Andrei Fedyashin

U.S. President Barack Obama is facing "a perfect storm of a week amid foreign policy challenges," which includes a meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on September 23 and chairing a special UN Security Council session on non-proliferation and disarmament.  Obama will need Medvedev’s support to achieve a number of his objectives.