[Peace-discuss] Simple test of Obama's good faith on n-weapons

[C. G. Estabrook]

[Will he support ElBaradei's 2003 proposal?  Will he support a 
verifiable Fissban?  Bet he won't.  --CGE]

...In 2003 a reasonable proposal ... was put forward by Mohamed 
ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency: that all 
production and processing of weapon-usable material be under 
international control, with "assurance that legitimate would-be users 
could get their supplies". That should be the first step, he proposed, 
toward fully implementing the 1993 UN resolution for a fissile material 
cutoff treaty (or Fissban).

ElBaradei’s proposal has to date been accepted by only one state, to my 
knowledge: Iran, in February [2006], in an interview with Ali Larijani, 
Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator. The Bush administration rejects a 
verifiable Fissban — and stands nearly alone. In November 2004 the UN 
committee on disarmament voted in favour of a verifiable Fissban. The 
vote was 147 to one (United States), with two abstentions: Israel and 
Britain. Last year a vote in the full General Assembly was 179 to two, 
Israel and Britain again abstaining. The United States was joined by Palau.

There are ways to mitigate and probably end these crises. The first is 
to call off the very credible US and Israeli threats that virtually urge 
Iran to develop nuclear weapons as a deterrent. A second step would be 
to join the rest of the world in accepting a verifiable Fissban treaty, 
as well as ElBaradei’s proposal, or something similar.

A third step would be to live up to article six of the NPT, which 
obligates the nuclear states to take "good-faith" efforts to eliminate 
nuclear weapons, a binding legal obligation, as the world court 
determined. None of the nuclear states has lived up to that obligation, 
but the United States is far in the lead in violating it...

Full article at <http://www.chomsky.info/articles/20060623.htm>