Hans Blix: Britain, UNSC, failing to fulfil NPT obligations
Former United Nations weapons inspector Hans Blix took aim on Monday at the United States and Britain, accusing the Iraq-invasion allies of increasing the risk Iran and North Korea will possess deliverable nuclear weapons.
Speaking just ahead of a British parliamentary vote on upgrading the British nuclear deterrent, Blix said countries without nuclear weapons feel "cheated when the have-states are deciding new types of weapons."
He added the Bush administration pledge that "all options" remain on the table in dealing with Iran and North Korea shows Washington still claims the right to use pre-emptive force - a policy Blix believes could lead to the use of nuclear weapons.
"Despite some valuable progress in arms control and disarmament during the 1990s, we are actually in a phase of re-armament," Blix told international lawyers at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law in London.
... Blix said the United States, Britain and the other nuclear powers with permanent UN Security Council seats - France, China and Russia - are all guilty of failing to fulfil their side of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
It calls for their eventual disarmament in return for a promise by non-nuclear countries to shun nuclear weapons. But the nuclear "club" has expanded in recent years to include India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea. Iran, said Blix, is "under suspicion" of seeking to do the same.
Blix said the world "missed the opportunity" to work towards disarmament at the end of the Cold War, saying there had been a "fragmented" approach towards non-proliferation through an array of treaties, and he called for the UN to call an international conference.
He gave numerous examples of how he believes the United States is raising tensions, citing in particular U.S. development of the missile shield, which he said made Russia and China feel vulnerable, and talk among U.S. policy makers of placing weapons in space.
Blix said U.S claims to the right to use pre-emptive force are particularly worrying when coupled with what he called the "conventionalization" of nuclear weapons - something for which the British had once argued in the case of "low-yield" nuclear weapons if used in areas such as the high seas where few civilians would be killed.
"While the overwhelming majority of states reject the U.S. claims to (pre-emptive) licence on the use of armed force, there may be a risk that these U.S. policies and doctrines, the development of smaller nuclear weapons, and the trend towards conventionalization could, one day, lead to the use of nuclear weapons," he said. Link
Speaking just ahead of a British parliamentary vote on upgrading the British nuclear deterrent, Blix said countries without nuclear weapons feel "cheated when the have-states are deciding new types of weapons."
He added the Bush administration pledge that "all options" remain on the table in dealing with Iran and North Korea shows Washington still claims the right to use pre-emptive force - a policy Blix believes could lead to the use of nuclear weapons.
"Despite some valuable progress in arms control and disarmament during the 1990s, we are actually in a phase of re-armament," Blix told international lawyers at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law in London.
... Blix said the United States, Britain and the other nuclear powers with permanent UN Security Council seats - France, China and Russia - are all guilty of failing to fulfil their side of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
It calls for their eventual disarmament in return for a promise by non-nuclear countries to shun nuclear weapons. But the nuclear "club" has expanded in recent years to include India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea. Iran, said Blix, is "under suspicion" of seeking to do the same.
Blix said the world "missed the opportunity" to work towards disarmament at the end of the Cold War, saying there had been a "fragmented" approach towards non-proliferation through an array of treaties, and he called for the UN to call an international conference.
He gave numerous examples of how he believes the United States is raising tensions, citing in particular U.S. development of the missile shield, which he said made Russia and China feel vulnerable, and talk among U.S. policy makers of placing weapons in space.
Blix said U.S claims to the right to use pre-emptive force are particularly worrying when coupled with what he called the "conventionalization" of nuclear weapons - something for which the British had once argued in the case of "low-yield" nuclear weapons if used in areas such as the high seas where few civilians would be killed.
"While the overwhelming majority of states reject the U.S. claims to (pre-emptive) licence on the use of armed force, there may be a risk that these U.S. policies and doctrines, the development of smaller nuclear weapons, and the trend towards conventionalization could, one day, lead to the use of nuclear weapons," he said. Link
posted by exoplanet at 10:38 PM
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