Posted on 03/25/2002 5:53:32 PM PST by Pokey78
China and Iran have withdrawn their contribution to monitoring nuclear tests, apparently in protest at Washington's hostility towards the comprehensive test ban treaty, raising the fear that the treaty may collapse before it has come into operation.
Both have stopped sending seismic data to the nascent treaty's office in Vienna.
The treaty will only come into force when it has been ratified by the 44 states believed to be capable of building nuclear weapons. So far it has been ratified by 31
The Clinton administration signed the treaty, but three years later the Senate refused to ratify it, and the Bush White House has openly opposed it, hinting that it may end the moratorium on testing which has been in effect since 1992.
In its nuclear posture review, leaked last month, it ordered work to begin on developing a new generation of low-yield tactical nuclear weapons such as "bunker-busters", which would require testing before being used.
It has withheld about $800,000 (£560,000) in contributions to the CTBT Organisation (CTBTO), which was supposed to help fund arrangements for site inspections.
Diplomats in Washington said US opposition to the treaty was a major barrier to gathering the international support required to bring it to life, and argued that the reduced cooperation of China and Iran could be the first signs of a backlash which could eventually kill it.
Iran has completed work on building and testing monitoring stations, among 337 around the world intended to send a stream of seismic and other data to the CTBTO in Vienna, allowing it to spot a nuclear test anywhere on earth. But the Iranian parliament has stopped the monitoring stations sending data until the treaty enters into force.
China has yet to complete testing its monitoring stations and has cut off a direct flow of data from other seismic stations around the country, sending the information on computer diskette in the diplomatic pouch.
Beijing protested last week that the US nuclear posture review breached an agreement between the two countries on "mutual non-targeting of their nuclear weapons".
It also complained that the review had "openly stated that nuclear weapons would be used" in the event of military conflict in the Taiwan Straits.
Beijing is particularly irritated because the hardline declarations from Washington follow so soon after President Bush's summit in Beijing and China's full endorsement of the US-led war against terrorism.
In a speech to the CTBTO last week, Daryl Kimball, the head of the Arms Control Association pressure group, warned: "The inaction or nonsupport of one or another country for ratification of the treaty or nonpayment of assessments to the CTBTO can only lead to the unraveling of the regime to the detriment of all nations."
He added yesterday: "There is a risk that states like China and Iran will begin to with draw their support from implementation of the treaty, and these are signs of the problems that may occur ... The US is risking that possibility and that may indeed be what the US wants."
The CTBTO has also been dogged by questions over its management. A new review by a German management consultancy, Cedar, found that there was "a high degree of fear and mistrust in the decision-making processes" within the organisation.
The report, obtained by the Guardian, pointed to a "lack of transparency", and an "Inflexibility of rules, even when the right reasons exist to change a policy" among a series of management weaknesses.
Cedar also reported that "some employees have the impression that political concerns are more important than technical requirements".
The Vienna-based organisation did not respond to calls requesting comment yesterday, but a spokeswoman told Reuters news agency that the management was addressing the recommendations outlined in the Cedar report.
Oh, poor China! They're indignant after we double-crossed them. They liked it much better when Klinton made America China's doormat. Now that they expect America's full and docile cooperation, they start crying when we pull a fast one, conveniently forgetting that they have reneged on every nuclear agreement they've ever signed.
We didn't doublecross them.
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