Batoul Wehbe
The agreement reached at the 2010 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) review conference "includes balanced and practical steps that will advance non-proliferation, nuclear disarmament, and peaceful uses of nuclear energy, which are critical pillars of the global non-proliferation regime," Obama said in a statement.
The US president expressed concern however with the document's most controversial issue, a commitment to hold a regional conference in 2012 that would aim to create a Middle East zone free of nuclear weapons. "The United States has long supported such a zone, although our view is that a comprehensive and durable peace in the region and full compliance by all regional states with their arms control and nonproliferation obligations are essential precursors for its establishment," he said. "We strongly oppose efforts to single out Israel, and will oppose actions that jeopardize Israel's national security."
Obama's national security advisor, General James L. Jones, also issued a statement to the same effect. "The United States will not permit a conference or actions that could jeopardize Israel’s national security," he said. "We will not accept any approach that singles out Israel or sets unrealistic expectations. The United States’ long-standing position on Middle East peace and security remains unchanged, including its unshakeable commitment to Israel’s security."
Jones added that Washington had reservations about the declaration because it names “Israel” while ignoring Iran. "The United States deplores the decision to single out Israel in the Middle East section of the NPT document," he said. "The failure of the resolution to mention Iran, a nation in longstanding violation of the NPT and UN Security Council Resolutions which poses the greatest threat of nuclear proliferation in the region and to the integrity of the NPT, is also deplorable."
Iran is a signature of the NPT treaty and is cooperating with the IAEA, while Israel is not. The 28-page Final Declaration was approved by consensus on the last day of the month-long conference, convened every five years to review and advance the objectives of the 40-year-old NPT.
Under its action plan, the five recognized nuclear-weapon states – the United States, Russia, Britain, France and China – commit to speed up arms reductions, take other steps to diminish the importance of atomic weapons, and report back on progress by 2014. The declaration also calls on Israel to submit its nuclear facilities to inspection by the UN, a clause the US sought to avoid, but it apparently withdrew objections in order to get the final draft approved.
Israel on Saturday denounced what it called the “hypocrisy” of a UN nuclear non-proliferation deal on the Middle East. "This accord has the hallmark of hypocrisy. Only Israel is mentioned, while the text is silent about other countries like India, Pakistan and North Korea, which have nuclear arms, or even more seriously, Iran, which is seeking to obtain them," a senior government official told AFP on condition of anonymity. "The fact that no reference is made to Iran is even more shocking, given that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has disclosed more and more information in recent months on the military character of Iranian nuclear projects," the official added.
IRAN PRAISES UN DOCUMENT
Iran's representative to the UN atomic watchdog on Saturday hailed the UN document calling on Israel to open its so far undeclared atomic facilities to international inspection. Iran's IAEA representative Ali Asghar Soltanieh, who attended the conference at the United Nations, welcomed the move. "It is a step forward in creating a world without atomic weapons," Soltanieh told the official IRNA news agency.
Israel has been maintaining an ambiguous policy over its own atomic arsenal by neither denying nor admitting its existence. Soltanieh told IRNA that the United States, despite opposing the NPT text on Israel, will have to fall in line with other countries. "The US reservation is symbolic and it is obliged to go along with the world's request, which is that Israel must join the NPT and open its installations to IAEA inspectors," he said.
WHO CRITICIZES DEAL SHOULD ELIMINATE HIS WEAPON STOCKPILES
However, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that nations criticizing an Iranian nuclear fuel-swap deal brokered by Brazil and Turkey should eliminate their own nuclear weapon stockpiles.
Erdogan made the comments just hours after saying that the West was "envious" of Brazil and Turkey's achievement in getting Iran to agree to the deal. "Those who speak to this issue should eliminate nuclear weapons from their own country and they should bear the good news to all mankind by doing that," Erdogan said while attending a UN conference in Rio de Janeiro.
Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim told reporters in Rio the fuel swap deal contains all the elements that the US and other nations were seeking in similar agreement last year. "The agreement contains all that which was proposed by the Group of Vienna, especially by Russia, the United States and France, and now we need time to see if it will bear results." "The world needs a peaceful Middle East," he said.
Iran Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said world powers cannot use their nuclear weapons to bully other nations into giving up efforts to obtain peaceful nuclear energy. In a meeting with his Bulgarian counterpart in Sofia, Mottaki said, "Today, the world public opinion and the international community do not accept double standards and selective dealings."
Mottaki highlighted Iran's role as one of the founders of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and one of those contributing to the "nuke-free Middle East" initiative. The minister reiterated that Iran's stance was one of "nuclear energy for all, nuclear arms for none" — the slogan introduced by Tehran at an international nuclear disarmament conference hosted by the Islamic Republic.
"Those who have used nuclear arms against humanity and are now threatening other nations with such weapons have no right to prohibit others from exercising their inalienable right to peaceful nuclear energy," Mottaki added.
The Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov, for his part, hailed Iran's recent move to issue a trilateral nuclear fuel swap declaration with Brazil and Turkey. He described the May 17 declaration as a positive effort toward achieving a reasonable solution to the standoff over Iran's nuclear program.
US GRAPPING OPPORTUNITY ON IRAN
In the meantime, senior U.S. officials were working hard this week on criticizing and undermining the much successful swap deal.
"The underlying problem is that Iran continues to enrich uranium, and that is what it is obliged to suspend under three (UN Security) Council resolutions," said one official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "In our view the joint declaration falls short of what's necessary. But regardless of this ... proposal, it is important that we proceed to New York to adopt the resolution."
The U.S. officials said the proposed deal was “too little too late and could not buy more time for Iran.” But the senior U.S. officials made clear the new fuel proposal will in no way slow the Washington-led drive to slap new UN sanctions in Iran, with the resolution expected to move to the full Security Council within weeks. "That was in essence grasping at straws, that somehow this would help resolve the issue," a second official said.
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