Double standards plague international efforts to reduce world's nuclear weapons by Bryan Bender, The Boston Globe 10:46am 23rd Jun, 2004   June 22, 2004    WASHINGTON -- The world's nuclear powers have failed to reduce their reliance on atomic weapons, creating a double standard that plagues international efforts to reduce their spread, the United Nations top nuclear watchdog said yesterday.    El Baradei said the United States' search for a new class of nuclear weapons is a prime example of this double standard, which some specialists say deepens desires by other countries to join the club of nuclear powers.    With the growing availability of weapons of mass destruction materials and expertise to states and terrorist groups, one of the largest obstacles to countering nuclear proliferation is the hypocrisy at the heart of global nuclear policy, said Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency. The nuclear powers pressuring countries like Iran and North Korea to forgo nuclear arms are clinging to the weapons as the centerpiece of their own security, despite pledges more than 30 years ago to reduce their dependence on them, he said.    The time is long overdue to "abandon the unworkable notion that it is morally reprehensible for some countries to pursue nuclear weapons but morally acceptable for others to rely on them," ElBaradei said in a speech to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.    ElBaradei's agency is responsible for verifying that nuclear treaties are followed, and has received high marks from around the world for his dogged efforts to rein in Iran and Libya's programs. He is awaiting the outcome of six-party talks with North Korea to restart inspections there.    But he said recent attempts to keep nations from developing nuclear weapons are seriously hampered by the fact that the very countries pressuring them are themselves no closer -- and possibly even further -- from reversing their own nuclear ambitions.    He called on the international community to establish a new strategy for "verified, irreversible nuclear disarmament." Such a goal is required by the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty signed more than three decades ago that called on the declared nuclear states -- the United States, Russia, China, Britain, and France -- to take immediate steps toward full nuclear disarmament.    Many government officials and specialists say such a lofty goal is unrealistic. There are currently more than 30,000 useable nuclear weapons around the globe, according to UN estimates.    ElBaradei said the United States' search for a new class of nuclear weapons is a prime example of this double standard, which some specialists say deepens desires by other countries to join the club of nuclear powers.    "If such efforts proceed, it is hard to understand how we can continue to ask the nuclear have-nots to accept additional nonproliferation obligations and to renounce any sensitive nuclear capability as being adverse to their security," he said at a conference of international nonproliferation specialists.    Taking steps to reduce the US reliance on these weapons will be a primary focus of a speech today by Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts. Kennedy, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, will call on the Bush administration to end its work on developing a bunker-busting "mininuke" in making a series of proposals to beef up international nonproliferation efforts.    "They don't strengthen our military options, and they send precisely the wrong signal to the world about America's nuclear intentions," the senator will say, according to a draft of his speech.    These activities have also made it more difficult to persuade undeclared nuclear powers such as India, Pakistan, and Israel to come to the negotiating table, according to ElBaradei.    ElBaradei described an international community that, despite the nature of the nuclear threat, has taken a haphazard approach to dealing with the problem. "The trend has been toward inaction or late action on the part of the international community, selective invocation of norms and treaties, and unilateral and self-help solutions on the part of individual states or group of states," he said. "Against this background of insecurity and instability, it should not come as a surprise to witness the continued interest . . . in the acquisition of nuclear weapons."    © Copyright 2004 The Boston Globe Company
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