As an American, I remember how we were raised and taught to believe that the 2 A-Bombs dropped on Japan was done so to end WWII and stop tyranny per America's views. Today, I begin to wonder who is truly looking out for whose best interest based on one's aggressiveness and nuclear arsenal. Try viewing the NPT through 'International' eyes, and then decide which nation is the bigger deterrent and threat to such a treaty's success?



http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&cl...17260362329B252

May 28 2005 at 09:48AM

New York - After a month of bickering, the 188 signatories to the global pact against atomic weapons ended their conference on Friday with no agreement on new steps to combat the danger of a nuclear holocaust and many blamed the United States and Iran.

Nine countries possess 30 000 atomic weapons, nearly all of them in the United States and Russia. Dozens more nations could build a bomb if they wanted to.

By signing the NPT, the acknowledged nuclear powers - the United States, Russia, Britain, China and France - pledged to eventually scrap their deadly arsenals but have not done so.

US officials said that since the attacks of September 11, 2001, the most urgent issue was not disarmament but proliferation and the possibility that terrorists could obtain atomic weapons.

"Much has changed since we last met five years ago," Ambassador Jackie Sanders told the conference. In addition to North Korea withdrawing from the NPT and announcing it has nuclear weapons, Iran appears to want the bomb, she said.

"Iran's nuclear weapons program, previously shrouded in secrecy and deceit, has been exposed, as have Iran's violations of its (NPT) obligations," she said.

Iran's UN ambassador, Javad Zarif, slammed the United States for not disarming as called for by the NPT and invoked memories of the 1945 US atomic bombing of Japan.

"The extremist attitude reflected... seems to indicate that no lessons have been learned from the nightmare of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. If history is any guide, nuclear arms, ladies and gentlemen, are in the most dangerous hands," he said.

I certanly can see Iran's point of view about it all.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?p...9-5-2005_pg4_13

Sunday, May 29, 2005

R E G I O N: Iran says US, Israel are the real nuclear threats

* Iranian ambassador to UN says US never had the intention to scrap its arsenals

UNITED NATIONS: The United States and Israel represent the real nuclear threat to the world, not Iran, Tehran’s chief envoy to the United Nations said on Friday after an abortive conference on controlling nuclear weapons.

Javad Zarif, Iran’s ambassador to the UN, said the United States never intended to scrap its nuclear arsenal, despite promising to eventually disarm when it signed the 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the landmark arms control pact. Zarif, in an interview with Reuters, said Israel, which is widely believed to have nuclear weapons, was the threat to the Middle East region. “There is unanimity on the threat that is posed not only by Israeli nuclear weapons but by its aggressive policy (in general),” he said.

Washington is backing efforts by Britain, France and Germany to persuade Tehran to halt its nuclear fuel programme, which they fear may be intended to make atomic bombs. Iran denies this, insisting its programme is peaceful. Zarif dismissed as hollow US pledges in 1995 and 2000 reaffirming its commitment to scrap its nuclear arsenal. “The US never had any intention of living up to its commitments under Article 6 of the treaty,” he said.

In Article 6 of the NPT the five treaty signatories with nuclear weapons - Russia, the United States, France, Britain and China - agreed to eventually disarm.

Smoke screen: Zarif said US attacks on Iran’s nuclear programme were a “smoke screen to divert attention from its violations” that included a US willingness “to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear weapon states.”


“Israel is the threat to the region,” he said. “It is one of the great ironies of our age that a country outside the framework of legality in the area of nonproliferation is one of the countries that is the most active participants against Iran,” he said. Like atomic-armed India and Pakistan, Israel has never signed the NPT. It neither admits nor denies having the bomb, Israel is estimated to have some 200 nuclear warheads. reuters

"....US officials said that since the attacks of September 11, 2001, the most urgent issue was not disarmament but proliferation and the possibility that terrorists could obtain atomic weapons...."


That event has been the 'reason' for so many things....not all of them good. :no: