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| Turkeys Erdogan says nuke powers must disarm | |
| 2010-05-29 | |
[Al Arabiya Latest] Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday the United States and other nuclear powers should "eliminate" their arsenals to be "convincing" in the standoff over Iran, as Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva underlined his insistence that a "negotiated solution" be found with Iran over its nuclear program.
"When we hear people talking about stopping Iran getting nuclear weapons -- who are they to talk against the idea of having nuclear weapons!" Erdogan exclaimed. "Those who talk like that should eliminate nuclear weapons from their own countries.... That's the only way to be convincing," he said. "We will not manage to have world peace with the proliferation of nuclear arms." The Brazilian president, meanwhile, reiterated his insistence that a "negotiated solution" be found with Iran over its nuclear program, as the U.S. and other powers mulled sanctions. Lula said he "went to Iran in search of a negotiated solution" to the international standoff over the program, which the United States claims -- over Tehran's denials -- is a cover for building atomic weapons. The Brazilian president also stated that he saw nuclear arsenals as "obsolete" and highlighted his country's constitutional ban on possessing such arms. The comments, made at the opening of a U.N. conference in Rio, came a day after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said "we have very serious disagreements with Brazil's diplomacy vis-a-vis Iran." The United States is pushing a U.N. resolution to punish Iran with a fourth set of sanctions after deeming that it is not doing enough to meet international demands to show its nuclear program is peaceful. Lula and Erdogan on May 17 extracted an agreement from Iran to deposit around half its stock of low-enriched uranium in Turkey in exchange, later, for nuclear fuel enriched to a level for medical -- but not military -- use. They hailed the deal as a diplomatic breakthrough, and said it aligned with demands set out to them by the U.S. government to avert an escalation against Iran. But Washington subsequently said the accord did not go far enough, notably with Iran insisting it would still enrich its remaining uranium stock, and the sanctions resolution was submitted to the U.N. Security Council, upon which Brazil and Turkey both sit. | |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 Turkeys Erdogan says nuke powers must disarm To me, this says something about how other nations view the West. |
| Posted by: gorb 2010-05-29 02:02 |