US nuclear missiles in Europe are a provocation to proliferation.
The report, Weapons of Terror, is authored by a commission
chaired by former International Atomic Energy Agency head Hans
Blix.
The report criticizes all countries involved in the
proliferation debate. Iran is not excluded for its continued
obfuscation nor the US for its illegal doctrine of pre-emption and
its more than 5,000 nuclear weapons, which are described as a major
provocation to further proliferation.
Greenpeace received the report a day early when Greenpeace
Policy Advisor Felicity Hill stumbled upon a copy accidentally
released at the WMDC
website.
It was available for several hours before being withdrawn.
"While the world watches with concern at the heated political
negotiation over Iran's nuclear programme and holds its breath to
see what the US will do next, Blix and his team have produced a
state-of-the-art report on all of the pressures and problems
surrounding the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction," said
Ms. Hill.
The report clearly states that the nuclear weapon states are in
breach of their Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT) commitment to disarm
and "no longer seem to take their commitment to nuclear disarmament
seriously - even though this was an essential part of the NPT
bargain, both at the treaty's birth in 1968 and when it was
extended indefinitely in 1995."
That's the kind of thing we have been saying for decades - but
which rarely features in the UN Security Council, dominated as it
is by the five permanent members, all of whom possess nuclear
weapons. Far from disarming, they're actually upgrading their
arsenals.
The report also observes: "While the reaction of most states to
the treaty violations was to strengthen and develop the existing
treaties and institutions, the US, the sole superpower, has looked
more to its own military power for remedies. The US National
Security Strategy of 2002 made it clear that the US would feel free
to use armed force without authorization of the United Nations
Security Council to counter not only an actual or imminent attack
involving WMD but also a WMD threat that might be uncertain as to
time and place."
The question remains: will the US continue to undermine
international diplomacy, or heed Blix's call to, in effect, lead
by the force of its example rather than the example of its
force.
One ghost of Blix's former job of promoting nuclear power pops
up when the commission recommends providing nuclear fuel to Iran in
a "managed safeguarded and controlled" manner.
We reject the notion that supplying nuclear fuel to anyone will
help reduce the danger of nuclear proliferation. Having the means
to make nuclear energy means having the means to make nuclear
weapons. It is the most expensive, unsustainable and dangerous ways
to boil water ever invented.
The only sensible way to combat proliferation is to remove the
sources of proliferation and that includes nuclear power.
Having correctly identified the problem the WMDC reaches the
wrong conclusion. In recognising that nuclear power and nuclear
weapons are inextricably linked the only rational conclusion is to
reject nuclear power. Instead the world should urgently take up the
challenge of developing and deploying renewable energy sources
which have the benefit of being both climate-friendly and have no
weapons utility whatsoever.
No notion of controlling and safeguarding the production,
transport and use of nuclear weapons materials can ever be one
hundred percent guaranteed, and the only way to eliminate the risk
of diversion or theft by terrorists is to eliminate the materials
themselves which means no nuclear power.
Take action
Tell NATO to say "NO" to US Nuclear weapons in Europe.
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