Posted on 05/19/2009 6:06:49 PM PDT by Iam1ru1-2
The number of potential nuclear weapons states could more than double in a few years unless the major powers take radical steps towards disarmament, the head of the UN's nuclear watchdog has warned.
In a Guardian interview, Mohamed El Baradei said the threat of proliferation was particularly grave in the Middle East, a region he described as a "ticking bomb".
El Baradei, the outgoing director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said the current international regime limiting the spread of nuclear weapons was in danger of falling apart under its own inequity. "Any regime … has to have a sense of fairness and equity and it is not there," he said in an interview at his offices in Vienna.
He has presided over the IAEA for more than 11 years and is due to retire in November at the age of 67. A bitter diplomatic battle is under way over his successor.
The IAEA director general is the custodian of a global arms control regime that is increasingly beleaguered. It was built around the 1970 nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT) and the goal of restricting membership of the nuclear club to five postwar powers. It has been under strain in the last four decades, with Israel, India, Pakistan and North Korea developing weapons outside the NPT. But now ElBaradei says the system is in danger of collapse, with an abrupt spread in nuclear weapons technology.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
What? The world is going nuclear, so the major (responsible) powers should disarm?
What kind of logic does this show?
OK, we'll throw all of our nukes into the garbage, but you countries, Backwardistan, Upsidesownistan and Whokonwswhereistan, you all can develop nukes to your heart's content.
Thanks to Jimmy Carter!
Don’t worry, I’m sure Obama has a plan to talk about this.
Let me get this straight, radical anti-american dictatorships are about to become nuclear states, el baradei’s solution is unilateral disarmament by the USA?
Close the UN and let the homeless live there!
When I saw who said it, I thought I would read it for comic relief but even then I couldn’t get past the first line.
How this El Baradei moron figures Western nuclear disarmament would have an appreciable damping effect on other nations’ acquiring nuclear weapons I don’t know. And he doesn’t either, or else he would say. What a crock of horses#!+ he peddles.
What Moron cannot understand or will not admit is that the mere fact that any country has ever fielded a large nuclear arsenal is all the incentive a country like North Korea or Iran needs to acquire as much nuclear potential as they possibly can. It’s far too late for shutting the barn door to do any good, El Baradei. And your ‘moral authority’ argument is worse than pathetic - it’s so wrongheaded that its evidence of sheer incompetence or worse on your part.
Read the last name again...
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