40 Years On, NPT In Urgent Need of Overhaul and What about Israel

Published on Wednesday, July 2, 2008 by Agence France Presse

40 Years On, NPT In Urgent Need of Overhaul: Experts

VIENNA - The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty or NPT, which celebrates its 40th birthday this week, may have succeeded in keeping the number countries in possession of nuclear weapons down to a mere handful.

But the treaty, drawn up during the Cold War period, is now in urgent need of an overhaul if it is to meet present-day challenges such as the proliferation crises in North Korea, Iran and most recently Syria, experts said.

Furthermore, the United States should take the lead in bolstering the legitimacy of the NPT and the entire non-proliferation regime by dismantling its nuclear arsenal, the experts said.

Opened for signature on July 1, 1968 and put into effect on March 5, 1970, the NPT is the most universal arms control treaty in force.

Its stated goal is to stop the nuclear arms race and seek nuclear disarmament.

Five countries that had tested nuclear weapons before the treaty’s completion — China, France, Russia, Britain and the United States — were recognised as nuclear-weapon states and obligated to pursue “effective measures” toward nuclear disarmament.

All others were designated non-nuclear-weapon states and prohibited from acquiring nuclear arms at all.

A major problem was that no specific target date was laid down for disarmament.

And with the nuclear states apparently reluctant to dismantle and destroy their nuclear arsenals, the non-nuclear weapon states see little incentive to keep their part of the bargain.

It had created a world of “nuclear haves and have-nots … which cannot be sustained indefinitely,” said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association in Washington.

“Nuclear weapons are dangerous no matter who possesses them,” he told AFP.

K. Subrahmanyam, a former director of the Indian Institute for Defence Studies, agreed.

“It cannot be legal for some countries to possess a category of weapons while it is illegal for others to do so. A regime that is based on such inequity cannot be expected to be stable or secure against further proliferation,” Subrahmanyam wrote in a recent article for the Arms Control Association.

Perhaps one of the NPT’s biggest flaws is the limited power there is to enforce it.

Inspections, carried out by the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, are voluntary and countries largely control inspectors’ movements.

Furthermore, there are no penalties for breaking the NPT, apart from being reported to the UN Security Council.

Experts acknowledge the NPT’s success in curbing the number of states in possession of nuclear weapons.

“In 1960, (US President) John F. Kennedy warned as many as 20 nations could acquire a nuclear weapon in less that decade. They didn’t,” said Joe Cirincione, President of the Washington-based Ploughshares Fund.

“There are only nine countries with nuclear weapons today. Why? A big part of the reason is the bipartisan, multinational effort that lead to the NPT,” Cirincione told AFP.

Thanks to the NPT, “there are now far fewer countries that have nuclear weapons or weapon programmes than there were in the 1960s, 1970s or 1980s,” the expert said.

Nevertheless, the non-proliferation regime had suffered important setbacks, notably the cases of North Korea and Iran, and more recently Syria.

North Korea developed an illicit nuclear weapons programme, which it is only now in the long and slow process of dismantling.

Iran is accused of pursuing a weapons programme under the guise of peaceful nuclear power and Syria has recently come under fire for allegedly building a covert nuclear facility.

“These recent setbacks are not the fault of the NPT structure, but rather a problem of enforcement and international support,” said Cirincione.

“Too often ‘realpolitik’ will influence decisions like the Indian Nuclear Deal that undermine the treaty. The NPT is very clear. All proliferation is bad, not just proliferation among potential enemies.”

Kimball similarly believes the United States is undermining the NPT, not only by repudiating its disarmament commitments, but by seeking to carve out special exemptions from the rules for allies such India.

It was therefore up to the United States to take the lead if the NPT is going to survive, the experts said.

“Most of the 183 non-nuclear nations that have signed the NPT believe what the treaty says: No one should have nuclear weapons. It is time for the United States to mean it, too,” said Cirincione.

“The NPT is not doomed to failure,” said Kimball.

“But in order to survive well into this century, states must renew, strengthen, and fulfill the NPT bargain — and soon.”

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What About Israel? (Whistle Blower of Israel’s WMD Program, Mordechai Vanunu speaks):

The time is now for the US and the entire world to speak very clear and loudly about Israel’s ’secret’ nuclear weapons. They locked me up for 18 years for exposing them, but they get away with nuclear ambiguity because the world is afraid they will be accused of anti-Semitism.

But any movement such as North Korea is doing is good news, because now, Israel must be led by the international community to follow the same world policies, the IAEA inspections and regulations and human rights and international law.

Also the Dimona is ancient and last week, the Israeli Ambassador visited the office of IAEA, Mohamed Elbaraede and the news reports that he complained about Iran. So, maybe now, Israel will also report in secret to the IAEA, about the future of Dimona?

Also Isreal wants to build or have Reactors for energy so they must accept and adhere to the NPT and all IAEA authorization and inspections.

The world is waiting for Israel to move as Korea is and South Africa did.

If Israel claims they don’t have nuclear weapons, then they must open up the Dimona or destroy it.

Israel’s atomic weapons cause every state in the Middle East to want them and the only way out is for Israel to sign the NPT or close down the Dimona.

No one should ignore the fact that Atomic weapons are in Israel and that it was France most especially who helped build the Dimona reactor in 1960.

No one should forget that France was the first state to start nuclear weapons proliferation in secret, not Iran.

The world’s problem with Iran is the obligation to help the people of Iran to have freedom and democracy; free from a dictator regime.

The problem is not nuclear weapons in Iran but the need for freedom for all the people.

I am not at all supporting this Ayatollahs regime in Iran. This regime should be ended and replaced by freedom and democracy for all Iran people.

The same goes for Israel too, which is only a democracy if you are a Jew.

The Israeli problem is the Jewish apartheid regime.

No nuclear weapons program is a true deterrent or safeguard mechanism for security because Atomic weapons can only bring destruction. Atomic weapons are a mechanism of self destruction.

How can Israel, the only country in the Middle East known to have a nuclear weapons program expects all others not to even have peaceful nuclear energy programs?

Since Israel has the Bombs, then they can not speak with credibility about stopping all the Middle East states from having at least Nuclear Energy, Nuclear Science and Technology.

Israel by all its nuclear secret activities opened the way for any state to do the same. My view is that Nuclear Science and technology must be part of any modern state and society, so all the world and every state should have it.

After almost 50 years of secret nuclear activities and productions of bombs, America, France and the entire world should also intervene and demand Israel sign the NPT, follow all of the IAEA orders, regulations and restrictions.

Instead, Israel puts on me distractions.

The real issue in both states is democracy before any thing else and Israel is only a democracy if you are a Jew.

I fulfilled my sentence of 18 years in prison because I listened to my conscience and reported the truth that Israel was manufacturing weapons of mass destruction. It is over four years now that Israel has held me captive in East Jerusalem; forbidding me to speak to any foreigners or to leave the state, which is all I want to do.

The Norwegians know my situation very well and by mid-July, the world should hear some more about the Norwegian Lawyers Petition http://www.vanunu.org/ and about my asylum.

Norway could become a world leader in the Mid-East peace efforts if they will continue to speak up loudly against all the blatant human rights violations Israel gets away with in my case and with the Palestinians.

I go back to court July 8th and either face six months in jail for speaking to foreign media in 2004, or something else is possible. Israel can be free of me and let me leave the state, or I will remain here under occupation.