0
GENEVA, March 28: Iran and Pakistan warned the United States on Thursday that it risked triggering a new arms race if it went ahead with reported plans to develop new types of nuclear weapons.
In speeches to the Geneva-based Conference on Disarmament, they also criticized Washington’s decision to pull out of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM) and press ahead with developing a defensive shield against missile attack.
Both moves were amongst “go it alone” decisions on the armaments front, which included Washington’s isolated opposition to toughening an international ban on biological weapons, that threatened to revive “a global arms race,” Pakistan Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar said.
“These negative trends...could become much worse if policies designed to prevent the use of nuclear weapons are abandoned in favour of arbitrary and unidimensional approaches to security,” Sattar added, referring to a recently leaked document outlining changes in US strategic thinking.
The so-called Nuclear Posture Review raises the possibility of developing new types of nuclear weapons and describes contingency plans for using them against at least seven countries, amongst them Iran, Russia and China.
“While the international community calls for multilateralism, cooperation and dialogue, one single voice talks about the escalation or war and unilateralism,” Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Javad Zarif told the Conference.
“The (US) review represents an alarming trend of contempt for multilateralism and threatens to undermine our common achievements, particularly in the area of (nucleaar) non-proliferation,” he warned.
US officials have sought to play down the review, saying it does not mark a significant departure from existing policy and is merely prudent defence planning.
But defence analysts say it reinforces international fears that Washington puts little store by multilateral arms treaties.
Russia and China also addressed the last day of the opening 2002 session of the Conference, the world’s principal disarmament negotiating forum which has spawned several international treaties.
Russia’s permanent representative to the talks, Leonid Skotnikov, reaffirmed his country’s concerns at the reported change in US nuclear arms policy, saying it would undermine treaties against weapons proliferation.
“In our view, all this seriously weakens the basis of the nuclear non-proliferation regime,” he said.
The Conference, which will reconvene in May, has been deadlocked for more than three years over the launching of international negotiations to ban arms in space as well as outlawing the production of fissile material that could be used to make nuclear weapons.
Most of the 66 member states back the opening of negotiations on fissile material but the United States and China are split on the question of weapons in outer space.—Reuters
