Tracking Number: 385991
Title: "US Determined to Prevent Iranian Nuclear Weapons Program." Senior arms control official John Holum told reporters that the US will make preventing Iran from developing
nuclear weapons a top foreign policy priority. (950404)
Translated Title: EU resuelto a impedir programa Irani de armas nucleares.; Les Etats-Unis et le programme nucleaire Iranien. (950404)
Author:
MARSHALL, RICK (USIA STAFF WRITER)
Date: 19950404
Text:
U.S. DETERMINED TO PREVENT IRANIAN NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROGRAM
(NPT: Holum optimistic on indefinite NPT extension) (440)
By Rick Marshall
USIA Staff Writer
Washington -- The United States "is determined to prevent Iran from getting
a nuclear weapons program," John Holum, director of the Arms Control and
Disarmament Agency (ACDA), told reporters April 4.
Holum cited open source materials that estimate Iran is approximately eight to ten years from developing nuclear weapons on its own. Russia has agreed to supply equipment to Iran, however, and that could well advance the timetable, he said.
"It is very hard to imagine conditions that will make us comfortable" with the sale of the Russian nuclear equipment, Holum said, and he vowed that the United States would continue to press the Russians to halt the sale.
"It would be in Russia's interest to stop this process early," he added. Holum conceded that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had visited Iran and been unable to identify any sites where a nuclear weapons program might be located. Such visits are a mechanism to ensure compliance with the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), to which Iran is a signatory. He suggested, however, that the United States has additional information and that there was a "general agreement" within the Nuclear Suppliers Group about the existence of the Iranian nuclear weapons program.
The 28-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group is an organization which seeks to control the export of nuclear material, facilities, equipment and components to states where nuclear proliferation is a concern.
Turning to the NPT, Holum expressed confidence that a majority of the approximately 180 nations attending the upcoming review conference in New York will favor extending the treaty indefinitely.
"This is a very big decision," he said, "a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make the treaty permanent." The NPT, he added, "is the cornerstone of arms control."
Asked about North Korea's reluctance to accept South Korean-built nuclear reactors, Holum stressed that the United States was not interested in renegotiating terms which were part of the original agreement forged with the North Koreans late last year.
Holum also expressed interest in discussing with Congress possible adjustments to the Pressler Amendment, which prohibits military and economic assistance to Pakistan unless the president certifies that Pakistan does not have nuclear weapons.
Although Holum said that "our assessment remains that Pakistan is at the threshold" of a nuclear program and that the Pressler Amendment has contributed to U.S. arms control objectives, he added that the amendment was in some ways too blunt an instrument to permit the fine-tuning of U.S. policy.
NNNN
File Identification: 04/04/95, PPO205; 04/04/95, EUR208; 04/04/95, NEA206; 04/05/95, AEF305; 04/05/95, LEF303; 04/05/95, ERF305; 04/05/95, LSI305; 04/05/95, NAA305; 04/06/95, AFI408
Product Name: Wireless
File
Product Code: WF
Languages: Russian; Spanish; Arabic; French
Keywords: IRAN/Defense & Military; IRAN-US RELATIONS; NUCLEAR WEAPONS; HOLUM, JOHN; NUCLEAR NON-PROLIFERATION
Thematic Codes: 1AC
Target Areas: EU; NE; AF; AR
PDQ Text Link: 385991; 386136; 386437
USIA Notes: *95040405.PPO
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