Foreign ministers from around the world try on Monday to breathe life into a 35-year old nuclear disarmament treaty whose credibility UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan says is seriously challenged.The United States, in the month-long conference that appears deadlocked before it even begins, wants the focus on Iran and North Korea.But the majority of nations complain that the nuclear powers, mainly the United States and Russia, have moved far too slowly in abiding by the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), which calls for them to move toward dismantling their arsenals. Iran threatened on Saturday to resume producing nuclear fuel. North Korea, which said it has nuclear weapons and withdrew from the NPT, on the eve of the conference apparently launched a short-range missile into the Sea of Japan.The 188 members of the 1970 treaty, the cornerstone in arms reduction treaties, meet every five years to review progress and set new goals. Only the United States, Russia, Britain, France and China are permitted to have nuclear arms while all other countries vow to give up atomic warheads for good.Nevertheless, Brazilian Sergio de Queiroz Duarte, president of the conference, said on Friday he expected some movement this week because many countries hold ‘‘their cards close to their chest until they have to take a decision.’’Still, Annan has several times expressed his apprehension that the treaty is fraying. He told a forum in February the NPT ‘‘faces serious challenges to its credibility.’’Annan and Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, open the conference after which a host of foreign ministers, including Iran’s Kamal Kharrazi, address the forum, which ends on May 27.Kharrazi has scheduled private meetings with both ElBaradei and German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer.But North Korea won’t attend. India and Pakistan, which have nuclear weapons, and Israel, assumed also to have atomic arms, are not signatories to the treaty. The Bush administration, which has also scorned a nuclear test-ban treaty, is sending a mid-level delegation.ElBaradei has called for a global moratorium on the enrichment of uranium and reprocessing of plutonium, the two ways of making fuel for atomic weapons.Ironically, the United States and Iran are allies in opposing El Baradei’s proposal. But many states say it is a flaw in the NPT that parties to it can legally develop the ability to produce bomb fuel. Another flaw is the withdrawal of North Korea from the NPT without sanctions.Washington has its own solution: states that fail to comply with the NPT should be denied the right to nuclear technology guaranteed by the treaty. Diplomats say this would mean Iran would have no right to continue with its uranium enrichment programme, which it hid from the IAEA for 18 years before declaring it in 2003.Annan and ElBaradei are also pushing for more nations to ratify a protocol to the treaty which gives the nuclear watchdog the right to conduct more intrusive short-notice inspections.“Addressing one particular institutional weakness ought tobe a no-brainer but there appears to be a surprising amount of resistance,” said Rebecca Johnson, a disarmament expert from the London-based Acronym Institute.Russia and the US have most of the world’s estimated 30,000 nuclear weapons. Each is believed to have 7,000 to 8,000 operational warheads. Washington has an additional 3,000 to 5,000 stockpiled whereas Russia has an estimated 8,000. China is said to have some 403 nuclear arms, France 346 and Britain 185. India and Pakistan are estimated to have 40 operational warheads each and Israel is said to have some 200. —Reuters
