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Straw proposes amending NPT to outlaw nuclear fuel enrichment

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

London, Feb 25, IRNA -- British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw Wednesday
announced new counter-proliferation proposals, including amending the 
Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to deny the right to nuclear 
reprocessing by states that fail to comply with international 
obligations. 
"We should consider whether such states should not forfeit the 
right to develop the nuclear fuel cycle, particularly the enrichment 
and reprocessing capabilities which are of such proliferation 
sensitivity," Straw said. 
In a written statement to parliament, he insisted that such an 
amendment did `not mean that they would be deprived of constructing 
and running civil nuclear power stations`. 
"These could still operate with fuel supplied by countries 
honoring their safeguards obligations," the foreign secretary 
insisted. 
"The fuel would be subject to Agency monitoring while in the 
receiving country, and would be returned to the country of supply when
spent. This would prevent a seemingly civil program masking a weapons 
program," he said. 
Straw also suggested that there was a need for more wide-ranging 
inspections of national nuclear industries by the International 
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). 
The basis for carrying out such inspections were provided for by 
NPT Additional Protocol and it was `important that all members of the 
international community adopt one`, he said, also proposing that the 
IAEA be given an additional budget. 
In his statement, the British foreign secretary referred to 
significant breakthroughs in countering the proliferation of weapons 
of mass destruction (WMD), including in the case of Libya and the 
six-party talks in North Korea. 
He also said that the UK had played a leading role, with France 
and Germany, on the issue of Iran`s nuclear program, that led to 
Tehran signing the additional protocol and suspending its right to 
nuclear enrichment capability. 
Other steps referred to were the Proliferation Security Initiative
launched in May last year, the Global Partnership against the spread 
of weapons and material of mass destruction establish by the G8, the 
European Security Strategy and the role of the UN Security Council. 
Straw said that countering proliferation remained as important 
today as it ever was and that there is much work still to do, which 
he hoped would be assisted by his proposals. 
HC/AH/210 
End