Iran, Egypt Line Up Against US, Allies at UN Nuke Meeting (Ahmadinejad has requested a visa to enter the U.S. to attend the meeting)
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has requested a visa to enter the U.S. to attend the meeting, which begins Monday in New York, but it is not yet clear whether the State Department will approve his application. The Iranian leader is hoping to lead a fight to force Israel to sign the treaty and thereby admit to possessing nuclear weapons – something the Jewish State has never confirmed or denied, but which is widely assumed to be true.
Israel will not participate in the conference, nor will India or Pakistan, who also are not signatories to the treaty.
If Ahmadinejad is granted the visa, he will face U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who heads the American delegation on nuclear non-proliferation.
The treaty, first signed in 1970, calls on those who possess nuclear warheads to abandon them, and is intended to stop the further spread of atomic weapons. Every five years the 189 signatories to the pact gather to review current compliance with its mandate, as well as the progress made towards its worldwide goals.
In 2005, neither objective was reached due to ongoing debates between Iran, the U.S. and Egypt.
The treaty has thus far failed to stop Iran from proceeding with its rush towards nuclear capability, despite a current mandate from the U.N. Security Council ordering the Islamic Republic to suspend its uranium enrichment activities. Nor has it stopped North Korea from building a nuclear weapon, or blocked a Pakistani-led illicit nuclear supply network from providing materials to those who can meet the price.
The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, including the U.S., Russia, China, France and Britain plus Germany are already in New York working to draft a resolution on a new set of sanctions aimed at slowing down, if not stopping, Iran from continuing with its nuclear technology development. But the Council is far from united on the issue, as Russia and China continue to balk at the idea of imposing harsh economic sanctions on the Islamic Republic to stop its nuclear development, despite the growing threat to the nations of the world that is becoming clearer as time passes.
Russia has many investments in Iran, not the least of which is a nuclear plant of its own; China has numerous trade agreements, including several involving petroleum products.
By next week, the rotating presidency of the U.N. Security Council again changes hands, and for the next six months, Lebanon will be its new leader. The Lebanese government includes numerous representatives from the Hizbullah terrorist organization, which is patronized by Iran both through generous funding and shipments of arms.
The document includes possible resolutions for the planned 2010 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. In the document, Egypt recalls the UN's 1995 Resolution on the Middle East, which called to make the Middle East a nuclear-free zone.
Egypt wishes to see Israel relinquish any nuclear arms in its possession and to grant the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency access to all nuclear facilities. Egypt is also hoping to convince Western countries to reveal the details of any nuclear-related sales to Israel, in an attempt to deal a blow to Israel's current policy of nuclear ambiguity.
Another suggests “the establishment of the nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East.”
Egypt also aims to bring pressure to bear by barring sales that could boost Israel's nuclear facilities. The document suggests a Conference resolution that “reaffirms that any supply arrangements for the transfer of source or special fissionable material or equipment or material especially designed or prepared for the processing, use or production of special fissionable material to Israel should require, as a necessary precondition, Israel’s accession to the Treaty as a non-nuclear-weapon State and the placement of all its nuclear facilities under comprehensive IAEA safeguards.”
The clause, if accepted, would bar the United States, Russia, China, and European states from selling equipment or materials to Israel that could be used in a nuclear facility.
The document does not mention any other country by name. Pakistan is a nuclear power that has not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty, and Iran is developing its nuclear capacity while ignoring international calls to allow oversight of its facilities.
The IAEA, suggested by Egypt to oversee Israel's nuclear facilities, was headed until recently by Mohammed ElBaradei, an Egyptian who is currently weighing the possibility of running for his country's presidency. ElBaradei recently expressed support for terrorism against Israel, stating that Israel “only understands the language of violence.”
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