US/Indo Nuclear Agreement: Derailing A Deal
by Noam Chomsky; The Khaleej Times ; October 09, 2007
08 August, 2007 -- Nuclear-armed states are criminal states. They
have a legal obligation, confirmed by the World Court, to live up to
Article 6 of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which calls on them to
carry out good-faith negotiations to eliminate nuclear weapons entirely.
None of the nuclear states has lived up to it. The United States is a
leading violator, especially the Bush administration, which even has
stated that it isnt subject to Article 6.
On July 27, Washington entered into an agreement with India that
guts the central part of the NPT, though there remains substantial
opposition in both countries. India, like Israel and Pakistan (but
unlike Iran), is not an NPT signatory, and has developed nuclear weapons
outside the treaty. With this new agreement, the Bush administration
effectively endorses and facilitates this outlaw behaviour. The
agreement violates US law, and bypasses the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the
45 nations that have established strict rules to lessen the danger of
proliferation of nuclear weapons.
Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association,
observes that the agreement doesnt bar further Indian nuclear testing
and, incredibly,
commits Washington to help New Delhi secure fuel
supplies from other countries even if India resumes testing. It also
permits India to free up its limited domestic supplies for bomb
production. All these steps are in direct violation of international
nonproliferation agreements.
The Indo-US agreement is likely to prompt others to break the rules
as well. Pakistan is reported to be building a plutonium production
reactor for nuclear weapons, apparently beginning a more advanced phase
of weapons design. Israel, the regional nuclear superpower, has been
lobbying Congress for privileges similar to Indias, and has approached
the Nuclear Suppliers Group with requests for exemption from its rules.
Now France, Russia and Australia have moved to pursue nuclear deals with
India, as China has with Pakistan - hardly a surprise, once the global
superpower has opened the door.
The Indo-US deal mixes military and commercial motives. Nuclear
weapons specialist Gary Milhollin noted Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rices testimony to Congress that the agreement was crafted with the
private sector firmly in mind, particularly aircraft and reactors and,
Milhollin stresses, military aircraft. By undermining the barriers
against nuclear war, he adds, the agreement not only increases regional
tensions but also may hasten the day when a nuclear explosion destroys
an American city. Washingtons message is that export controls are
less important to the United States than money - that is, profits for
US corporations - whatever the potential threat. Kimball points out that
the United States is granting India terms of nuclear trade more
favourable than those for states that have assumed all the obligations
and responsibilities of the NPT. In most of the world, few can fail to
see the cynicism. Washington rewards allies and clients that ignore the
NPT rules entirely, while threatening war against Iran, which is not
known to have violated the NPT, despite extreme provocation: The United
States has occupied two of Irans neighbours and openly sought to
overthrow the Iranian regime since it broke free of US control in 1979.
Over the past few years, India and Pakistan have made strides
towards easing the tensions between the two countries. People-to-people
contacts have increased and the governments are in discussion over the
many outstanding issues that divide the two states. Those promising
developments may well be reversed by the Indo-US nuclear deal. One of
the means to build confidence throughout the region was the creation of
a natural gas pipeline from Iran through Pakistan into India. The peace
pipeline would have tied the region together and opened the
possibilities for further peaceful integration.
The pipeline, and the hope it offers, might become a casualty of
the Indo-US agreement, which Washington sees as a measure to isolate its
Iranian enemy by offering India nuclear power in exchange for Iranian
gas - though in fact India would gain only a fraction of what Iran could
provide.
The Indo-US deal continues the pattern of Washingtons taking every
measure to isolate Iran. In 2006, the US Congress passed the Hyde Act,
which specifically demanded that the US government secure Indias full
and active participation in United States efforts to dissuade, isolate,
and if necessary, sanction and contain Iran for its efforts to acquire
weapons of mass destruction.
It is noteworthy that the great majority of Americans - and
Iranians - favour converting the entire region to a nuclear-weapons free
zone, including Iran and Israel. One may also recall that UN Security
Council Resolution 687 of April 3, 1991, to which Washington regularly
appealed when seeking justification for its invasion of Iraq, calls for
establishing in the Middle East a zone free from weapons of mass
destruction and all missiles for their delivery.
Clearly, ways to mitigate current crises arent lacking.
This Indo-US agreement richly deserves to be derailed. The threat
of nuclear war is extremely serious, and growing, and part of the reason
is that the nuclear states - led by the United States - simply refuse to
live up to their obligations or are significantly violating them, this
latest effort being another step toward disaster.
The US Congress gets a chance to weigh in on this deal after the
International Atomic Energy Agency and the Nuclear Suppliers Group vet
it. Perhaps Congress, reflecting a citizenry fed up with nuclear
gamesmanship, can reject the agreement. A better way to go forward is to
pursue the need for global nuclear disarmament, recognising that the
very survival of the species is at stake.
--
Anivar Aravind
http://anivar.movingrepublic.org/about
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