Iran says sanctions might slow nuclear programme

July 7, 2010

Reuters

Sanctions against Iran could slow down its nuclear progress, a senior government official said on Wednesday, the first time Tehran has acknowledged the measures might have some bite.

"We cannot say the sanctions have no effect," the head of Iran's atomic energy agency, Ali Akbar Salehi, was quoted as saying by ISNA news agency. "Maybe they will slow down the work but they will not stop it, that's certain."

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had previously said a new wave of sanctions imposed by the United Nations, the United States and the European Union would have no impact on Iran's economy or its nuclear programme.

He called the U.S. sanctions -- which President Barack Obama said were Washington's toughest ever -- "pathetic" and said the U.N. resolution was worth no more than a "used handkerchief."

Salehi, who earlier on Wednesday said Iran's Bushehr nuclear power station would come on stream by the end of the summer, said the plant would not be affected by the sanctions, but Iran's more controversial uranium enrichment programme might be.

"In the case of enrichment and for some equipment like equipment for measuring, we might have some problems," Salehi said. But he added that Iran would be able to produce that equipment itself if necessary.

Iran has said it is prepared to return to talks with world powers on its nuclear programme, to discuss a fuel swap under which it would send some of its low-enriched uranium abroad in return for purer material -- enriched to 20 percent -- that it needs for a medical research reactor.

Salehi said Iran would continue enriching uranium to 20 percent -- an activity which particularly concerns the West as it is a significant step towards making weapons-grade material. He said Iran, which says its programme is for generating electricity and rejects Western suspicions it is seeking to build a nuclear bomb, had the right to enrich even further.

"We will not produce 20-percent-enriched uranium more than our needs, but we reserve the right to enrich to whatever level of enrichment for use in peaceful ways," he was quoted as saying by the official news agency IRNA.

Obama this month signed into law far-reaching U.S. sanctions aimed at squeezing Iran's refined petroleum imports. Among other measures, the latest round of U.N. sanctions, in June, expanded an arms embargo against Tehran and called for new measures against Iranian banks with suspected connections to the country's nuclear or missile programmes.

(Writing by Robin Pomeroy, editing by Mark Trevelyan)

Source: http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFLDE6661AP20100707

Mumbai voices concerns over nuclear liability bill

July 7, 2010

Gulf News

Mumbai has voiced its concern over the proposed Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill 2010, claiming it facilitates corporate immunity rather than protecting people's rights.

“The bill was rejected in Parliament and is now before a Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology which in an advertisement on June 24 had called for wider consultations to include public opinion on the bill before being presented again,” said Professor Suresh Mane, Head, Department of Law, University of Mumbai. 

At a public consultation organized by Human Rights Law Network (HRLN), the University and Greenpeace India and attended by lawyers, experts academicians and civil society representatives, Mane said that private operators say they will invest in nuclear power plants but want guarantees from the Government of India to ensure their liabilities are fixed.

He believed that providing immunity to operators would open the floodgates of acquittal in case of a nuclear disaster. The 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy is a stark example of little responsibility being taken by multinationals.

Terming the bill as denial by law to the right to seek adequate compensation in case of a nuclear accident, it was felt there should be unlimited liability as in Canada. 

The Bill sets a cap of total compensation for each nuclear incident or accident at Rs 21 billion. However, according to the experts gathered today, a list of world industrial disasters on a similar scale suggests that this figure will not be enough.

Union Carbide, the company at fault for the Bhopal gas leak, agreed in 1999 to pay a settlement of over Rs 22 billion to cover their liability. Estimates of the cost of a nuclear reactor meltdown are much higher.

The cleanup in Belarus alone reached $14 million after the Chernobyl accident. “How the government plans to cover these costs in the case of a similar disaster in India under the proposed liability regime remains a silent point,” said Deepika D’Souza, Executive Director, HRLN.

According to Greenpeace activists, Standing Committee members visited Tarapur and Kalpakkam power plants to check on the safety measures in place at these two sites.

“What they should have also done is meet the people living in the vicinity of these plants to find out their views,” says Priya Pillai, Greenpeace Policy Analyst.

“The time and space should have been much wider than what has been offered by the Standing Committee. Fifteen days of notice is not adequate enough for all the voices to be heard", she said.

The present public consultations in Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai will be submitted to the Standing committee.

By Pamela Raghunath, Correspondent
Source: http://gulfnews.com/news/world/india/mumbai-voices-concerns-over-nuclear-liability-bill-1.651548

Japan moves to mend nuke fences

July 6, 2010

The Telegraph

Japan has removed from a list of banned entities several Indian companies and government institutions to pave the way for high-technology transfers, particularly in the defence sector.

The move assumes significance as the two countries are close to an agreement on peaceful uses of nuclear energy, following which Japanese companies can participate in India’s civil nuclear energy sector.

Some of the 11 companies removed from the list, called the end-users’ list, include the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), the Indian Space Research Organisation, PSU Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilisers Ltd and private firm Godrej & Boyce.

Although the DRDO’s Aeronautical Research Development Establishment and three companies were added to the list recently, the external affairs ministry sees the overall reduction of Indian entities on the roster as a positive step.

The two countries’ top defence and foreign ministry bureaucrats met today for their first 2+2 dialogue — so called because it involves two ministeries from either side. Japan is the first country with which India has such annual consultations. The talks mechanism was instituted by the two Prime Ministers in December 2009 to advance defence cooperation. Japan only holds such 2+2 dialogues with close allies like the US and Australia.

During the consultations, India welcomed the decision to remove Indian companies from the end-users’ list. Apart from enabling transfer of high technology, the move will allow Japanese companies to bid for defence contracts in India, said sources in the external affairs ministry.

In foreign office-level consultations, also held today, the two sides said they were satisfied with the progress towards signing of the civil nuclear energy deal. The Japanese, the only people to have suffered a nuclear attack, in the Second World War II, had earlier been wary of such co-operation because of India’s refusal to sign the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty or the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

Under pressure from its private sector, Tokyo recently amended regulations to allow Japanese companies — Hitachi, Toshiba and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries — to partner the US and French companies seeking to build nuclear power plants in India.

The relaxation will also help operationalise the Indo-US nuclear deal faster. Two of the biggest US companies that plan to build nuclear power plants in India — General Electric and Westinghouse Electric Co — are partly or wholly owned by Japanese companies.

New Delhi is also said to be close to a similar civil nuclear deal with South Korea. Another area where both the Japanese and the South Koreans want to strengthen co-operation with India is in anti-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden.

The Japanese and South Koreans’ efforts at closer defence co-operation with India are also seen as part of their attempts to contain Chinese influence.

By ARCHIS MOHAN 
Source: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100707/jsp/nation/story_12655015.jsp

Pakistan president woos Chinese energy investment

July 7, 2010

The Associated Press

Pakistan's president appealed Wednesday for Chinese help in developing his country's stagnant energy sector, pointing to nuclear power as one growth area but making no public mention of a deal with China that has alarmed the U.S. and others.

The weeklong visit to China is Asif Ali Zardari's fifth since he came to office in September 2008, underscoring the robust diplomatic, military and commercial ties between the neighbors. He met President Hu Jintao on Wednesday and signed six agreements, including one on economic and technology cooperation. Details were not made public.

The visit highlights China's support for Pakistan as they face scrutiny over a 2008 deal that would give energy-starved Pakistan two new nuclear power plants. Critics said transferring the reactors would violate international nonproliferation agreements.

"This deal comes at a time to assure the people of Pakistan that despite their repeated requests to the West to give them such a deal ... it is China once more which they rely can on as an all-weather friend," said Adnan Bukhari, an associate research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies of Singapore's Nanyang Technological University.

The deal also came shortly after a wide-ranging deal that allowed the U.S. to sell nuclear fuel, technology and reactors to India, a regional rival of both China and Pakistan.

Bukhari said the China-Pakistan deal is sending a message in particular to India, whose relationship with Pakistan has been of varying tensions for decades. Both countries have nuclear weapons.

Zardari met with Chinese business leaders Wednesday in industries ranging from banking to defense in a bid to attract investment, according to a statement from his spokesman, Farhatullah Babar. He singled out energy as a growth industry in Pakistan.

Electricity shortages are chronic in Pakistan, where expansion of supply has lagged fast-growing demand. Some regions experience electricity outages of up to 18 hours a day and it is not uncommon for prolonged blackouts to provoke riots.

Authorities planned to feed the grid through "hydro, coal, gas, nuclear and renewable energy sources," the Pakistan statement said, without elaborating on the growth of nuclear energy.

Pakistan, whose former top nuclear scientist has been accused of trafficking sensitive nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea, has not signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, the main international agreement meant to stem the spread of nuclear weapons technology. China signed the treaty in the 1990s.

India also has not signed the treaty.

Mark Hibbs of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said in an April report that the U.S.-India deal was given the go-ahead by member states of the Nuclear Suppliers Group — which seeks to limit the spread of nuclear-related equipment — only after "considerable arm-twisting ... by the United States, France and Russia."

Yet Washington has expressed concern that China's nuclear deal with Pakistan doesn't have the necessary approval from the NSG, and has called for China to provide more information about it.

"In the past half-year or so, making peaceful use of nuclear energy has been a sensitive issue," said Wang Lian, an associate professor in the School of International Studies at Peking University. "The U.S. government has been urging the Chinese government to make the process more transparent."

So far, planning for the construction of the two reactors at the Chashma site in Pakistan's Punjab province has apparently gone forward.

"The United States and other NSG states may object to the pending transaction but they cannot prevent China from exporting the reactors," Hibbs said in his report.

Other countries are also concerned about the risk of an attack on nuclear facilities by insurgents battling the Pakistani military in the country's northwest tribal areas adjacent to Afghanistan, Bukhari said.

"The more you expand your nuclear programs or installations, there is more threat of attacks on them or maybe stealing of your equipment or your weapons," he said.

Pakistan maintains that it has stringent security at its existing nuclear facilities and screening of staff to prevent infiltration of their ranks.

China has said the deal would be carried out in line with "international obligations" and subject to international safeguards and supervision.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman did not answer a question about a nuclear deal with Pakistan in a news conference Tuesday.

By ANITA CHANG (AP)

Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j6Opchs9182J-sBrx4dU3ONO1WHAD9GQ96Q80

US military chief defends Pakistan's nuclear arsenal

July 2, 2010
The Ecomonic Times


The top US military chief has defended Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal while making a distinction between Pakistan and others like Iran and North Korea.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen said Islamabad makes “extraordinary efforts” to protect its nuclear weapons’ and termed the Iranian and North Korean nuclear programmes as destabilising the region.

Validating Islamabad’s argument for a nuclear arsenal, Admiral Mullen said that Pakistan sees its nuclear programme as a deterrent against India. “I have raised this issue with the Pakistani military since Day 1,” he said.

“As much as we are focused on this (terrorism) threat — and the Pakistanis are more than they used to be -- they see a threat in India and (having nuclear weapons) is their deterrent. They see this as a huge part of their national security.”

Admiral Mullen further said that Pakistan believes that nuclear arsenal is its most important weapons. “These (nuclear weapons) are their crown jewels.

These are the most important weapons in the Pakistani arsenal. That is understood by the leadership, and they go to extraordinary efforts to protect and secure them,” he was quoted as saying in an interview with a US newspaper.

He further criticised the efforts by Iran and North Korea to build up their nuclear weapons. “There isn’t any reason to trust (Iran),” he said, adding. “There is an uncertainty associated with Iran that is very consistent with Iran for a long time.”

North Korea’s desire for nuclear weapons and its increasing aggressiveness were cause for concern, the US military chief said. He further said that he would put North Korea “at the top of the list” of nuclear proliferation concerns. But the fact is that it was Pakistan which shared nuclear knowhow with Iran and South Korea through the A Q Khan proliferation network.

Also, the US assessment of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal puts a question mark on whether the US will make a move to stop the Sino-Pak nuclear deal. Last month two Chinese nuclear companies signing a contract to cooperate with Pakistan to construct the two reactors at the Chashma in Punjab province.

There are concerns that China is trying to ``grandfather’’ two additional nuclear reactors to an agreement that Beijing had with Islamabad before 2004.

It was only in 2004 that China became a member of the NSG. Pakistan has defended the deal saying it is in accordance with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) rules and regulations. China has also maintained that civilian nuclear trade with Pakistan would not violate its international commitments as per the 2004 agreement.


By ET Bureau
Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/US-military-chief-defends-Pakistans-nuclear-arsenal/articleshow/6117316.cms

China to share notes with Pakistan on India's efforts for UN Security Council seat

July 7, 2010
The Times of india


China will share with Pakistan its plans on the issue of India’s efforts to obtain a seat in the United Nations Security Council. The indication came from Chinese president Hu Jintao when he told the visiting Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari that Beijing will keep Islamabad informed about its plans for reforms in the UN Security Council. 

Zardari presided over six agreements signed between Pakistan and China covering areas like agriculture, health care, justice, media, economy and technology. But the agreements did not cover the proposed sale of two nuclear reactors to Pakistan. 

Significantly, Zardari sought assistance from Chinese companies for establishing alternative energy projects in the field of solar and wind power. But he did not mention nuclear power projects during his meeting with business leaders of China this morning. 

It was not clear whether the two governments were deliberately keeping quite about the issue, which has caused worries in India. Masood Khan, Pakistan’s ambassador in Beijing recently that the issue will be discussed during Zardari’s visit. 

A report from Islamabad quoted Zardari’s press adviser Farhatullah Babar as saying that Pakistan and China had already signed an agreement for two nuclear power projects during the president’s visit to China last year. He said the agreement "goes along well with the international non proliferation obligations of China and Pakistan." 

Hu and Zardari vowed to jointly fight the "three forces" of extremism, separatism and terrorism during their two-hour meeting on Wednesday. 

Zardari is accompanied during this five-day visit by his two daughters, Bakhtawar and Aseefa, besides a some senior ministers like defence minister Chaudhry Ahmad Mukhtar, petroleum minister Naveed Qamar, Minister of State for Water Resources Kamal Majidullah, Minister of State for Finance and Economic Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar and foreign secretary Salman Bashir.


By Saibal Dasgupta
Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/china/China-to-share-notes-with-Pakistan-on-Indias-efforts-for-UN-Security-Council-seat/articleshow/6139787.cms

Top UN nuclear inspector Olli Heinonen resigns

July 01, 2010

Associated Press

VIENNA — The International Atomic Energy Agency said Thursday that its senior and key nuclear inspector, Olli Heinonen, will be leaving his post at the end of August.

Heinonen, a deputy director, has headed the U.N. nuclear watchdog's all-important safeguards department, which is responsible, among other things, for making sure that nuclear material is not used for weapons.

As a deputy director, he is perhaps the most high-profile official at the Vienna-based agency after Director General Yukiya Amano, and over the course of his tenure has led sensitive Iran and Syria investigations. Both countries are suspected of hiding weapons-related nuclear activities.

"We confirm that Mr. Heinonen informed the director general of his resignation for personal reasons to take effect at the end of August," IAEA spokeswoman Gill Tudor said. "The director general has decided to respect his intention, with high appreciation for this long contribution to the agency."

She said no decisions have been made on a successor, but that the post would be filled without delay.

Heinonen, a Finnish radiochemist, joined the IAEA in 1983 and was appointed head of safeguards in July 2005.

Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jbZ3_puZo1SfevtuYm3xqjJqdmKQD9GM8TKG0

US stays mum on China-Pakistan nuke deal

July 2, 2010
Asia Times


Last week's meeting of the Nuclear Suppliers' Group (NSG) in New Zealand brought statements of concern over China's planned nuclear deal with Pakistan, but United States State Department officials avoided taking a strong position when pressed. 

China's proposed sale of two nuclear reactors to Pakistan would, in theory, stand in violation of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) - of which China is a signatory - but the Barack Obama administration's finalization in March of an agreement to reprocess spent nuclear fuel from India could face similar criticism. 

Critics charge that both the China-Pakistan and US-India deals

violate the NPT by facilitating nuclear programs in states that are not parties to the NPT. The US-India nuclear accord, however, only went ahead after Delhi had obtained a special exemption from the NSG.

United States State Department officials avoided questions from reporters about the China-Pakistan deal during the NSG meeting. When questioned on Monday, State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said that issues surrounding China's nuclear deal had been brought up at last week's meeting but that the US "[continues] to seek information from China regarding its future plans".

On Monday, Crowley told reporters, "We're looking for more information from China as to what it is potentially proposing. We have a view that this initiative, as it goes forward, would need the agreement of the Nuclear Suppliers' Group."

Other members of the NSG were not as restrained in their response to the possible transfer of nuclear technology to Pakistan. The British government expressed the opinion that "the time is not yet right for a civil nuclear deal with Pakistan".

The Obama administration has numerous reasons to abstain from joining the condemnation of the Chinese plan to sell nuclear reactors to Pakistan.

The White House has worked hard in recent months to improve relations after a difficult winter in which pressures grew on the administration to declare China a currency manipulator and the announcement of US arms sales to Taiwan provoked angry statements from Beijing.

The ongoing war against the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan necessitates good US relations with Pakistan to maintain supply routes into Afghanistan and assure cooperation in facilitating operations against Taliban havens in Pakistan.

Experts in Washington have concluded it to be unlikely that the White House would offer any public opposition to the China-Pakistan nuclear deal.

"The United States and other NSG states may object to the pending transaction but they cannot prevent China from exporting the reactors," Mark Hibbs, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment's Nuclear Policy Program, wrote in April.

"Senior officials in NSG states friendly to the United States said this month they expect that President Barack Obama will not openly criticize the Chinese export because Washington, in the context of a bilateral security dialogue with Islamabad, may be sensitive to Pakistan's desire for civilian nuclear cooperation in the wake of the sweeping US-India nuclear deal which entered into force in 2008 after considerable arm-twisting of NSG states by the United States, France and Russia," he wrote.

When the US announced in 2008 its intention to push through an exemption in the NPT to permit the sale of civilian nuclear technology to India, arms control advocates widely condemned the agreement as weakening the NPT, while others charged that the NPT maintained a double standard for close allies of the US.

Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad has complained of the hypocrisy in the restrictions put on the export of civilian nuclear technology while the US pushed for a loophole for India, a country that has not signed the NPT and has developed nuclear weapons.
The Obama administration has repeatedly made clear that the challenges surrounding nuclear non-proliferation and the reduction of nuclear weapons stockpiles are one of the top international initiatives that the White House is seeking to address.

Obama has spoken about his goal of a world "without nuclear weapons" and has emphasized the three pillars - disarmament, non-proliferation and peaceful uses of nuclear technology - which form the framework for a global reduction in the threat from nuclear weapons.

The NPT has been seen as the most effective avenue to channel US efforts to reduce the risk of proliferation but some experts are concerned that the US and China's attempts to sidestep the NPT and engage in nuclear deals with non-NPT signing countries will weaken the treaty.

While Beijing’s attempts to seek an exemption for its nuclear deal with Pakistan may garner some criticism, it seems unlikely that the White House will risk a public spat with China over the proposed sale.

Earlier this month, experts warned that the China-Pakistan nuclear deal could be a difficult issue at the NSG meeting but that a pre-2004 Sino-Pakistan nuclear cooperation agreement, signed before China joined the NSG, could be used by Beijing to allow the nuclear reactors sale to be "grandfathered" in.

"In the aftermath of the US-India deal and the group's decision to accommodate it, the NSG will have to perform a delicate balancing act to find the least unsatisfactory solution to China's challenge," Hibbs said on June 17.

"In the view of some NSG states, an agreement permitting China to grandfather the exports under the 2004 nuclear cooperation agreement with Pakistan would be the least damaging outcome, but it may not be credible," he said. "If China seeks an exemption, NSG countries could urge Beijing to provide nuclear security and non-proliferation benefits in exchange for limited commerce with Pakistan." 

By Eli Clifton 

Source: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/LG02Df02.html

Russia and U.S. downplay spy case; suspect on run

July 01, 2010

Reuters

Russian and the United States sought to shield improving ties from fallout in a Cold War-style espionage case on Wednesday, while a key suspect went missing after jumping bail in Cyprus.

After initially attacking the U.S. announcement of the arrest of 10 spy suspects as "baseless and improper" -- raising the specter of a diplomatic standoff -- Moscow stepped back with more conciliatory comments.

Neither nation wants to undermine fragile improvements in long-strained ties, political analysts said.

"We expect that the incident involving the arrest in the United States of a group of people suspected of spying for Russia will not negatively affect Russian-U.S. relations," a Foreign Ministry official said, on condition of anonymity.

U.S. officials echoed Russian hopes that the scandal, which had echoes of the fiction of John le Carre, would not ruin the relationship "reset" initiated by U.S. President Barack Obama and embraced by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

"We are going to work as hard as we can to move beyond this," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told a news briefing on Wednesday.

"It is absolutely evident that the scandal will wind down, as neither side wants a disruption of the 'reset' (of relations)," said Alexander Golts, a Russian military analyst.

A senior Obama administration official said Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns had discussed the matter with the Russian ambassador in Washington.

The U.S. Justice Department on Monday announced it had arrested 10 suspected spies in four locations on the eastern seaboard, where some of them had led seemingly typical suburban lives among unsuspecting neighbors.

SUSPECT SPY ON THE RUN

An 11th suspect, Christopher Robert Metsos, 55, was arrested in Cyprus on Tuesday and freed on bail. Cypriot police said on Wednesday that Metsos was missing and that a warrant for his arrest was being prepared for violating the bail terms.

Metsos had been expected to sign in at a police station in the coastal town of Larnaca but failed to appear, police said.

Metsos was accused of receiving and distributing money to the group, which U.S. officials say collected information on issues ranging from nuclear weapons research to the global gold market and CIA job applicants.

According to the Justice Department, he had received payments from a Russian official affiliated with Russia's mission to the United Nations in a spy-novel style "brush-pass" handoff, and also buried money in rural New York that was recovered two years later by other suspects.

U.S. accusations recalled spy scandals of the Soviet era and the more recent chill in relations with a Kremlin which, during the 2000-2008 presidency of ex-KGB officer Vladimir Putin, often accused the West of trying to weaken Russia through espionage.

But analysts said neither nation is in the mood for a new downturn in relations.

Russia is counting on U.S. backing to clinch entry into the World Trade Organization, where it is the largest economy still banging on the doors after a 17-year accession campaign.

That support was high on Medvedev's agenda at a summit with Obama last week that followed a visit to California's Silicon Valley, a hub of U.S. expertise crucial to Russia's uphill battle to modernize its overly resource-reliant economy.

Obama needs Russia on his side for efforts to rein in Iran's nuclear program, keep supply lines open to forces in Afghanistan and advance his goal of progress toward a world without nuclear arms.

The relatively mild Russian rhetoric clearly indicated that the Kremlin wants to limit the damage, Golts said.

Putin sent that message on Tuesday, telling ex-U.S. President Bill Clinton that U.S. police were "out of control" and "throwing people in jail." But he then added that they were just doing their job, and said he hoped the spy scandal would not reverse "all the positive gains."

Russian-U.S. ties deteriorated steadily after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, which Putin vehemently criticized, and hit new lows when Russia sent forces into pro-Western Georgia in a five-day war in 2008.

Signs of new warmth since then include Russia's backing of new sanctions against Iran this month and the major nuclear arms control treaty Medvedev and Obama clinched in April. 

By Conor HUmphries and Steve Gutterman

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65T27220100630