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NUKEWARS
US-Russia nuclear talks hit snag: report

US, Japan to call for nuke-free world: reports
Tokyo (AFP) Nov 12, 2009 - US President Barack Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama plan to issue a joint statement calling for a world without nuclear weapons when they hold talks Friday, reports said. In the statement, tentatively entitled the US-Japan joint initiative for a nuclear-free world, they would welcome rising international momentum toward arms reduction and non-proliferation, the Yomiuri said Thursday. In their joint effort, the United States would seek to raise the global momentum, while Japan would push the message from its perspective as the only country to have been hit with atomic bombs. The statement would be based on the UN resolution adopted in September at a Security Council summit hosted by Obama, Jiji Press said. It would also urge North Korea to return to six-nation disarmament talks immediately and unconditionally, and Iran to come clean about its suspected atomic programme, the Yomiuri said. Obama and Hatoyama would agree, ahead of a nuclear security summit scheduled for March in the United States, that Japan would host a preliminary meeting with Asian countries in Tokyo, the Yomiuri said.

Iran president vows defence of nuclear assets: report
Tehran (AFP) Nov 11, 2009 - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed Wednesday that his country would defend its nuclear facilities, while adding that Iran wanted to cooperate over its controversial nuclear drive, state media reported. "Iran will defend its nuclear assets in line with its national interests," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by the website of the state television channel. But he added: "We have entered an era of nuclear agreement and cooperation. "One of the important questions... is about nuclear cooperation at the international level, whether that be construction of nuclear power stations, reactors or even the presence of Iran in a nuclear fuel bank."

The idea of an international nuclear fuel bank was raised by the United States and the United Nations as a block against moves by the Islamic state to develop a nuclear bomb. The president added: "Stopping the nuclear programme is now irrelevant and we have arrived at the point where we are cooperating at a top level with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and through it with countries who have this technology." World powers have proposed a new plan to try and resolve a uranium enrichment standoff with Iran. A deal proposed by IAEA, calls for Iran to ship most of its known low-riched uranium -- about 1,200 kilogrammes -- to Russia for further enrichment.

The material will then be turned into fuel by France and sent back to Iran for use in a research reactor, in a bid to prevent Tehran further enriching the uranium itself in a suspected drive to develop nuclear weapons. Iran has still not responded to the proposals. Many countries suspect Iran aims to produce nuclear weapons under cover of a civilian nuclear energy programme. Tehran insists its programme is for peaceful energy use only. Russia, which has been an ally of Iran, urged Tehran again on Wednesday to give a prompt and positive response to the UN-drafted plan.
by Staff Writers
 Moscow (AFP) Nov 12, 2009
 Talks between Moscow and Washington to replace a key nuclear disarmament treaty that expires next month have hit a snag over proposed restrictions on Russian missiles, a newspaper said Thursday.

The dispute threatens to derail high-stakes talks on a successor to the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), which US President Barack Obama's administration hopes to replace before it expires on December 5.

The Kommersant daily, citing an unnamed expert familiar with the START talks, said Washington was seeking to retain a provision from the original treaty on US monitoring of Russia's arsenal of mobile ground-based missiles.

"They are offering to keep and even strengthen control over our mobile intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) such as the Topol," the expert was quoted as saying by Kommersant.

Russia is against the proposal since the United States currently does not have its own mobile ground-based ICBMs and it is therefore of "unilateral character," he said.

General Nikolai Makarov, chief of staff of the Russian armed forces, confirmed the talks had hit a snag but predicted the problems would be resolved by the two countries' negotiators.

"There is a number of problems, chief among them control over inspections and some numerical data," Makarov told reporters at the Kremlin ahead of President Dmitry Medvedev's annual address to the nation.

Makarov said US inspectors have regularly visited a Russian missile-production site under provisions in the current treaty while Russia had no such intrusive inspection rights of US missile production sites.

"We want the treaty to ensure both the security of the Russian Federation and of the United States on equal levels," Makarov said.

Kommersant said the talks had hit another sticking point over the maximum number of "carriers" capable of delivering nuclear warheads.

"In their package, the Americans stipulated a new ceiling for warhead carriers that we don't quite agree with," the expert told Kommersant, referring to proposals presented to Moscow last month by US National Security Adviser James Jones.

Besides ground-based ICBMs, the term "carriers" also encompasses submarine-launched missiles and heavy bombers.

US Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Ellen Tauscher was quoted as saying by ITAR-TASS news agency earlier this week that Washington was "disappointed" with Russia's answer to Jones' proposals.

But in a sign that both nations were still keen to reach a deal, Russian and US diplomats have already started looking for a venue where the two countries could sign the new agreement, Kommersant said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also predicted that any remaining problems would be ironed out in the next three weeks and voiced hope a new pact would be signed by December 5.

START, a landmark treaty seen as a cornerstone of Cold War-era strategic arms control, led to steep cuts in the US and Russian nuclear arsenals.

On Monday, the two countries resumed what they said would be the last round of their marathon talks in Geneva.

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Obama says willing to visit Hiroshima while in office
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