The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is all but dead, writes Sharif Abdel-Kouddous from New York A global conference to review the Nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty came to a disheartening close at the United Nations last month after the world's governments failed to strengthen controls on the spread of nuclear weapons or make any progress towards the elimination of existing nuclear arsenals. Countries that have signed on to the cornerstone treaty meet every five years to assess its implementation and find ways to further the goals of non-proliferation and disarmament. This year, fundamental differences in priority -- largely between the United States and Middle Eastern nations -- pervaded the review conference to such an extent that the treaty itself may have been damaged. While Washington tried to keep the focus of the month-long talks on alleged nuclear threats from Iran and North Korea, a large number of member states were more concerned with the colossal nuclear firepower of the United States and the failure of the Bush administration to meet its own obligations under the treaty. The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty became international law in 1970 and has been signed by 188 countries. Under the agreement, countries without nuclear weapons pledge not to pursue them in exchange for a commitment by five nuclear-weapons states -- the US, Russia, Britain, France and China -- to negotiate towards nuclear disarmament. (Incidentally, these five also form the permanent members of the UN Security Council) This commitment -- outlined in Article 6 of the treaty -- is the only multilateral agreement that binds the original nuclear weapons states to eliminate their arsenals. Three countries have refused to sign the treaty: India and Pakistan -- which conducted rival nuclear tests in 1998 -- and Israel, which is widely believed to have over 200 nuclear weapons. North Korea withdrew from the treaty in 2003. At the last review conference in 2000, the five original nuclear powers agreed to a 13-step plan towards disarmament and the implementation of Article 6. These included signing and ratifying the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, strengthening the Anti- Ballistic Missile treaty, reducing tactical nuclear weapons, and halting the production of weapons-grade nuclear materials. Since then, the US has pulled out of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, abrogated the Anti- Ballistic Missile treaty and continued to develop nuclear weapons. The Bush administration's blatant disregard for its treaty obligations and flaunting of international law were epitomised last month when the White House had the temerity to ask the Congress to fund research on a nuclear "bunker-buster" bomb at the same time delegates from around the world were convening in New York for the disarmament talks. "If governments simply ignore or discard commitments whenever they prove inconvenient, we will never be able to build an edifice of international cooperation and confidence in the security realm," the head of Canada's delegation, Ambassador Paul Meyer, said in a speech to the conference in an apparent reference to the United States. The inherent double standard within American nuclear policy is also demonstrated in its political stance towards Israel, which is widely believed to harbour an established nuclear weapons arsenal of over 200 warheads. The first authoritative confirmation that Israel had become a major nuclear power came back in 1986 when Mordechai Vanunu, an Israeli nuclear technician working at a secret installation in the Negev desert, leaked information and photos of the country's atomic weapons programme to the British press. Vanunu was kidnapped by Mossad agents and thrown in an Israeli prison for his actions. He was released from jail last year after serving 18 years behind bars, including 11 in solitary confinement. To this day, the Israeli government has never acknowledged having nuclear weapons and has not signed the Nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty. In a statement before the launch of last month's review conference, Vanunu said, "If you really want to make the Middle East free of the nuclear menace, it is here, Israel, that has nuclear weapons, not Iraq, not Iran. Here is all the proof you need." Vanunu's pleas fell on deaf ears. At the talks, the United States refused to allow discussion of Israel's nuclear status and resisted repeated calls by Egyptian delegates that a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East be on the conference agenda. Instead, the American delegates piled on pressure to centre the discussion on Iran and North Korea -- the two remaining nations on President Bush's so-called "axis of evil". Mired in political wrangling, the talks collapsed and ended with no final document and no agreement on moving forward. The failure of the conference makes nuclear proliferation more likely and nuclear disarmament a waning hope. Applying a different nuclear standard to countries based on political agenda rather than atomic capability, underlines a nakedly imperial American global policy. By refusing to deliver on its treaty commitments, the United States undermines the fragile balance between the haves and have-nots of the nuclear world that the agreement is based on. "If we are truly committed to a nuclear weapons-free world, we must move beyond rhetorical flourish and political posturing and start to think seriously how to get there," said UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan at the launch of the conference. Speaking 60 years after the US bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that killed thousands upon thousands of innocents and introduced mankind to the horror of nuclear warfare, the secretary- general's words are especially poignant.
