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Nuclear and non-nuclear nations push to settle key differences |
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May 21, 2000
UNITED NATIONS, MAY 20 (AP) - The nuclear powers and non-nuclear nations neared agreement on a new nuclear disarmament agenda but a final accord was stalled by a dispute between Iraq and the United States over Baghdad's nuclear weapons program.
"The entire conference is being held hostage with regard to the situation in Iraq," said Rebecca Johnson, editor of "Disarmament Diplomacy," a monthly arms control journal.
The four-week conference to review the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty was scheduled to end Friday, but negotiations among the 187 signatories to the accord dragged on late into the evening and were expected to continue into the early hours Saturday.
The conference president, Algerian U.N. Ambassador Abdallah Baali, was working to try to resolve the remaining differences ahead of a plenary session to consider a final document.
Iraq's U.N. Ambassador Saeed Hasan said Baghdad would accept a factual account of the International Atomic Energy Agency's January inspection of its nuclear reactors - but was vehemently opposed to any mention of Security Council resolutions that placed Iraq under sanctions until its weapons of mass destruction are eliminated.
"The Americans want to include that this inspection does not substitute for the obligations of Iraq under Security Council resolutions," Hasan said. "We rejected that proposal."
Iraq proposed new language late Friday and the ambassador expressed hope that it would be accepted by the Americans so both countries can join in the successful conclusion of the conference.
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