Nonproliferation News - September 24, 2009

FISSILE MATERIAL
The nuclear tipping point
The Guardian by Franco Frattini, George Shultz and Sam Nunn

No nukes is good news
The Guardian by James Acton and George Perkovich 

Russian links Iran sanctions to US missile change
AP by Robert Burns

China Opposes Iran Sanctions Sought by U.S.
NYT by Andrew Jacobs

EAST ASIA
1. N Korean nuke bases targetted - general
AFP
SOUTH Korea could mount swift and precise attacks on North Korea's nuclear bases should war break out on the peninsula, Seoul's incoming top military officer said today.

2. Japan's new PM takes lead in talks over NKorean nuke row
Channel News Asia by AFP
Japan's new Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama on Wednesday took the lead in talks among his Asian-Pacific partners to stand firm against North Korea's nuclear weapons and missile programmes, officials said.

3. SKorea leader urges North to return to nuke talks
AP by Foster Klug
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said Wednesday that North Korea must scrap its atomic weapons programs before the divided Korean Peninsula can be unified with the signing of a peace treaty to formally end the Korean War.

MIDDLE EAST
4. Iranian Leader Offers U.S. Access To the Country's Nuclear Scientists
Washington Post by Glenn Kessler
Iran is willing to have its nuclear experts meet with scientists from the United States and other world powers as a confidence-building measure aimed at resolving concerns about Tehran's nuclear program, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Wednesday.

5. Ahmadinejad Skirts Nuclear Issue in Speech
CBS News
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says his country is ready to shake all hands "that are honestly extended to us."

6. Russian links Iran sanctions to US missile change
AP by Robert Burns
With a diplomatic wink and nod, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev opened the door Wednesday to backing potential sanctions against Iran as a reward to President Barack Obama's decision to scale back a U.S. missile shield in Eastern Europe.

7. China Opposes Iran Sanctions Sought by U.S.
NYT by Andrew Jacobs
China will not support increased sanctions on Iran as a way to curb its nuclear program, a government spokesman said Thursday.

8. France against fuel sanctions on Iran: foreign minister
AFP
France's foreign minister said in an interview Wednesday he was not in favour of plans mooted by some US lawmakers to impose fuel sanctions on Iran to make it come clean on its nuclear programme.

9. US lawmakers hold off on new Iran sanctions
AFP by Olivier Know
Key US lawmakers said they will hold off on imposing tough new sanctions on Iran until after the next round of diplomatic efforts to freeze Tehran's suspect nuclear program.
 
10. Six powers demand "serious response" from Iran
Reuters
Six major powers have agreed that Iran must give a "serious response" at October 1 talks in Geneva on its disputed nuclear program, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said on Wednesday.

SOUTH ASIA
11. India nuclear tests 'successful'
BBC News
India's 1998 nuclear tests were "fully successful", the chief of the country's atomic energy agency has said.

RUSSIA/FSU

EUROPE

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
12. At U.N., Obama to Push for New Nuclear Weapons Treaty
Washington Post by Mary Beth Sheridan and Colum Lynch
President Obama will use the forum of the U.N. Security Council on Thursday to press his efforts to slow the spread of nuclear weapons and reduce global stockpiles.

13. U.N. to Pass Nuclear-Safeguards Plan
WSJ by Jonathan Weisman
A draft nuclear-safeguards resolution, expected to be adopted unanimously Thursday by the United Nations Security Council, would begin to lay the legal framework for military and diplomatic action against nations that use civilian nuclear technology for military purposes.

14. US Faces UN Pressure on Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty
NYT by AP
This time around, U.S. Senate skeptics who killed the nuclear test-ban treaty a decade ago must take into account a new, $1-billion verification network underpinning the pact, the treaty chief said Wednesday.

15. US rejoins nuke-test treaty session 10 years later
AP by Charles J. Hanley
After a 10-year gap, the United States on Thursday rejoined a biannual conference designed to win more support — including from the U.S. Senate — for the treaty banning all nuclear bomb tests.

MISCELLANEOUS
16. U.S. Panel Shifts Focus to Reusing Nuclear Fuel
NYT by Matthew L. Wald
With a federal plan to handle nuclear waste in deadlocked disarray, an advisory panel that has spent 20 years studying a proposed repository at Yucca Mountain turned Wednesday to discussing ways of reusing the fuel instead.

OPINION
17. The nuclear tipping point
The Guardian by Franco Frattini, George Shultz and Sam Nunn
The potential spread of nuclear weapons to states and terrorists, the spread of nuclear technology and know-how and the residual nuclear threat from the cold war have brought us to the precipice of a new and dangerous nuclear era. This unprecedented challenge to global security is the context for an extraordinary head-of-state-level meeting of the UN security council this week in New York, chaired by President Barack Obama.

18. No nukes is good news
The Guardian by James Acton and George Perkovich 
At a special meeting chaired by Barack Obama on Thursday, the UN security council will pass a resolution that puts new teeth into the world's nuclear non-proliferation regime. It is the first fruit of the new US strategy on managing nuclear dangers.

19. Why Democrats Fail at Arms Control
WSJ by Stephen Rademaker
In his address to the U.N. General Assembly yesterday, President Barack Obama once again stated his goal of "a world without nuclear weapons." But Mr. Obama's ambitious arms-control agenda is in trouble. Every Democratic president for the past 40 years has come into office committed to negotiating deep nuclear reductions with Russia. Each has left office without success.

20. Is a Nuclear-Free Middle East a Pipe Dream?
Time by Andrew Butters
Though the idea of a NWFZ for the region has been around since the 1970s, not only was the latest NFWZ resolution supported by Israel; it could also provide a tool for defusing the conflict over Iran's nuclear program.

21. Nuclear-Free Seas
NYT by Thomas Lehrman and Justin Muzinich
TODAY President Obama is scheduled to preside over a United Nations Security Council meeting on nuclear nonproliferation. He should use the occasion to address a critical weakness in the effort to halt the spread of nuclear weapons: the international community’s inability to stop and inspect a ship suspected of carrying nuclear materials without first getting permission from the country whose flag the ship is flying.

22. Deciphering the Fallout on Obama's Missile Plan
NYT by Kurt Volker
If there is one thing that can be observed in European reactions to President Obama’s announcement last week, it is that for Europeans of whatever stripe, missile defense was never really the issue. Rather, it had become a proxy for a host of other issues and anxieties that, even after Thursday’s announcement, remain sensitive and unresolved.

23. The Big Question: Is scrapping one of Britain's four Trident nuclear submarines sensible?
The Independent by Paul Vallely
Britain decided to reduce its Trident submarine fleet from four to three.  There’s a debate over whether it will hurt Britain’s deterrent.