OBAMA, WORLD LEADERS WORK TO STOP NUCLEAR SPREAD
R. HURST and ANNE GEARAN
(AP)
12/04/10
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama and presidents, prime ministers
and other top officials from 47 countries start work Monday on a
battle plan to keep nuclear weapons out of terrorist hands.
Confronting what he calls the "single biggest threat to U.S.
security," Obama is looking for global help in his goal of ensuring
all nuclear materials worldwide are secured from theft or diversion
within four years.
On the eve of what would be the largest assembly of world leaders
hosted by an American president since 1945 – the San Francisco
conference to found the United Nations – Obama said nuclear materials
in the hands of al-Qaida or another terrorist group "could change
the security landscape in this country and around the world for years
to come."
While sweeping or even bold new strategies were unlikely to emerge
from the two-day gathering, Obama declared himself pleased with what
he heard in warm-up meetings Sunday with the leaders of Kazakhstan,
South Africa, India and Pakistan.
"I feel very good at this stage in the degree of commitment and a
sense of urgency that I have seen from the world leaders so far on
this issue," Obama said. "We think we can make enormous progress on
this, and this then becomes part and parcel of the broader focus that
we’ve had over the last several weeks."
He was referring to what had gone before this, the fourth leg of his
campaign to rid the world of nuclear weapons. The United States is
the only country to use the weapons, two bombs dropped on Japan to
force its surrender in World War II.
The high-flown ambition, which the president admits will probably not
be reality in his lifetime, began a year ago in Prague when he laid
out plans for significant nuclear reductions and a nuclear-weapons-free
world.
In the meantime, he has approved a new nuclear policy for the
United States, promising last week to reduce America’s nuclear
arsenal, refrain from nuclear tests and not use nuclear weapons
against countries that do not have them. North Korea and Iran were
not included in that pledge because they do not cooperate with other
countries on nonproliferation standards.
That was Tuesday, and two days later, on the anniversary of the Prague
speech, Obama flew back to the Czech Republic capital where he and
Russian President Dmitri Medvedev signed a new treaty that reduces
each side’s deployed nuclear arsenal to 1,550 weapons. Medvedev also
arrives Monday to sign a long-delayed agreement to dispose of tons
of weapons-grade plutonium from Cold War-era nuclear weapons – the
type of preventive action Obama wants the summit to inspire.
Obama welcomes the assembled world leaders at a Washington convention
center late Monday afternoon, but begins the day with a morning meeting
with Jordan’s King Abdullah II, whose intelligence apparatus is deeply
involved in the Afghan war.
He then will sit down one-on-one with the leaders of Malaysia, Ukraine,
Armenia and China.
National Security Council spokesman Ben Rhodes said Obama would
squeeze in a meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Turkey is a key NATO ally, and relations have been difficult recently,
particularly over Iran. Rhodes said there were additional "pressing
issues," including normalization of relations between Turkey and
Armenia.
Throughout the two-day gathering, Iran will be a subtext as Obama
works to gain support for a fourth round of U.N. sanctions against
Tehran for its refusal to shut down what the United States and many
key allies assert is a nuclear weapons program. Iran says it only
wants to build reactors to generate electricity.
In an interview on ABC’s "Good Morning America," Medvedev agreed that
Iran’s nuclear program must be watched closely, but he said sanctions
on the regime would have to be smart and effective because they often
don’t work.
"They should not lead to humanitarian catastrophe, where the whole
Iranian community would start to hate the whole world," the Russian
president said.
He rejected the idea of imposing sanctions on Iran’s petroleum
industry.
"I don’t think on that topic we have a chance to achieve a consolidated
opinion of the global community," Medvedev said.
Support from Medvedev and Chinese President Hu Jintao, who sees Obama
privately Monday, is critical, but neither is firmly committed to a
new sanctions regime.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
