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| India-Pakistan |
| ‘India-IAEA safeguard agreement threat to NPT regime’ say Pak analysts |
| 2008-08-06 |
| ISLAMABAD: The recently concluded safeguard agreement between India and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has adverse legal and political implications for Pakistan and nuclear non-proliferation regime, analysts said on Tuesday. The country-specific agreement will undermine global non-proliferation efforts, the analysts said at a seminar, “India-IAEA safeguards: Legal and Political Implication”, organised here by Strategic Technology Resources (STR). International law expert Ahmar Bilal Soofi, defence analyst Dr Shireen Mazari and former ambassador Tariq Fatemi spoke at the seminar. Governors of the United Nations nuclear watchdog approved India's draft plan for inspections of its civilian atomic reactors on Friday, a precondition for launching a deal to obtain US nuclear fuel and technology. According to the agreement, 14 out of 22 civilian reactors declared by India will be subject to regular IAEA non-proliferation inspections for commerce with members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), including the United States. India had been embargoed by the NSG for having never joined the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and testing nuclear devices in 1974 and 1998. Corrective measures: "India may take corrective measures to ensure uninterrupted operation of its civilian nuclear reactors in the event of disruption of foreign fuel supplies," the agreement says. Soofi said that the legal community was surprised over the provisions of the agreement as they substantially deviated from standardised drafts of IAEA safeguards agreements. “Under the cross-references, the safeguarded material can be transferred to non-notified locations,” he said, adding that this provision created a safe corridor for India to exploit the agreement for military purposes. Soofi said that it was not clear whether the preamble of the safeguard agreement was part of operational text or it expressed the intent of the agreement. He also said the “corrective measures” were not defined and gave unlimited discretion to India. Dr Mazari who heads the STR, dubbed the agreement as an “empty shell agreement”. The agreement had come first and India will identify locations and reactors on convenient future dates, she said. She also criticised Pakistans lacklustre efforts to stall Indias bid for the agreement. She said Pakistans ambassador to the US Hussian Haqqani and National Security Adviser Mehmud Durrani were responsible for Pakistans failure. Pakistans insistence on “criteria-based approach” instead of country-specific agreement had support from Israel as well, she said, which the government failed to tap. Balance: Fatemi said that the agreement had permanently changed Indo-Pakistan nuclear balance in favour of India. Pakistan had time to mobilise international opinion against the agreement since its announcement in July 2005, he said, adding that the government paid no attention to it. |
| Posted by:john frum |
| #3 The Pakistani sense of entitlement renders such inconvenient facts irrelevant. |
| Posted by: john frum 2008-08-06 11:55 |
| #2 Like Pakiwakiland follows the NPT? So their bombs don't exist and Khan is a phantom? |
| Posted by: 3dc 2008-08-06 11:28 |
| #1 nice bleating |
| Posted by: Frank G 2008-08-06 08:56 |