WASHINGTON: The 22,000-word US Nuclear Posture Review shows a
deliberate attempt to keep India, Pakistan and Israel out of trouble, although there are several clauses that could lead to punitive actions against states seeking to gatecrash into the nuclear club.
This key policy document also
reflects the US desire to keep Pakistan on its side in the effort to prevent terrorists from acquiring nuclear material, instead of singling it out as a possible violator, as some anti-Pakistan lobbyists in Washington desire.
Underlining nuclear terrorism as todays most immediate and extreme danger, the NPR notes that Al Qaeda and their extremist allies are seeking nuclear weapons.
We must assume they would use such weapons if they managed to obtain them, it warns, adding that the vulnerability to theft or seizure of vast stocks of such nuclear materials around the world, and the availability of sensitive equipment and technologies in the nuclear black market, create a serious risk that terrorists may acquire what they need to build a nuclear weapon.
Lobbies in Washington often use both concerns --- the terrorists desire to acquire nukes and the presence of a nuclear black market --- to rope in Pakistan.
They never tire of blaming Pakistan for using the black market to make its own weapons and are apt to point out that the so-called Khan network of proliferators provided sensitive nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea.
They link these with the presence of Al Qaeda connected terrorists in the Pak-Afghan region to demand the outlawing of Pakistan.
But diplomatic observers in Washington told Dawn that the Obama administration appeared to have accepted Pakistans argument that its far better to work with Islamabad to deal with these threats rather than isolate it as a rogue state, as anti-Pakistani lobbies desired.
The new US policy is also critical of additional countries who desire to acquire nuclear weapons, especially those at odds with the United States, its allies and partners, and the broader international community.
This condition creates room for Pakistan as a country which is not only allied to the US and its partners but also is playing a key role in their efforts to defeat terrorism.
The document, however, makes no such exception for Iran and North Korea, and points out that in pursuit of their nuclear ambitions, the two countries have violated non-proliferation obligations, defied directives of the United Nations Security Council, pursued missile delivery capabilities, and resisted international efforts to resolve through diplomatic means the crises they have created.
The document blames their provocative behaviour for increasing instability in their regions, which could generate pressures in neighbouring countries for considering nuclear deterrent options of their own.
The NPR warns that continued non-compliance with non-proliferation norms by these and other countries would seriously weaken the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), with adverse security implications for the United States and the international community.
A chapter titled, preventing nuclear proliferation and nuclear terrorism, declares that the United States will lead expanded international efforts to rebuild and strengthen the global nuclear non-proliferation regime and to accelerate efforts to prevent nuclear terrorism.
Concerns have grown in recent years that unless todays dangerous trends are arrested and reversed, before long we will be living in a world with a steadily growing number of nuclear-armed states and an increasing likelihood of terrorists getting their hands on nuclear weapons, the document warns.
Therefore, for the first time, the 2010 NPR places this priority atop the US nuclear agenda.
The document commits the United States to renewing and strengthening the NPT and the global nuclear non-proliferation regime it anchors to cope with the challenges of non-compliance and of the growth of nuclear power.
Another clause opens up the possibility that like India, at some stage Pakistan may be allowed to benefit from nuclear technology to cope with its alarming energy crisis.
We support expanding access to the benefits of peaceful nuclear technology, but this must be done in a way that does not promote proliferation of nuclear weapons capabilities, the NPR says.
But it warns that states without nuclear weapons will not acquire them, states with nuclear weapons will move toward disarmament, and all parties can have access to peaceful nuclear energy under effective verification.
As part of this effort, the United States seeks to bolster the nuclear non-proliferation regime by: Reversing the nuclear ambitions of North Korea and Iran, strengthening International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards, creating consequences for non-compliance and by impeding sensitive nuclear trade.
DAWN.COM | Front Page | US nuclear policy makes exceptions for Pakistan
