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Thursday, August 18, 2011

Expert says Pakistan not responsible for stalemate in CD Says US, other powers cause deadlock in disarmament

ISLAMABAD: Rejecting the blame against Pakistan that it spoiled the Conference on Disarmament (CD) in Geneva, expert on nuclear issues Dr. Shireen Mazari Wednesday said that the country struggled for breaking the deadlock over the issue.

Briefing media men on the issue here in the National Press Club, she said that that the CD in Geneva has been debating the Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty (FMCT) for some time and the issue has been held up for over a decade primarily because of the US and not Pakistan.
“Pakistan, contrary to charges of bieng spoiler, actually floated a proposal to break the deadlock in the CD earlier in February 2011 and reinvigorate its working by suggesting that it take up the agenda items first on which there is an evolving consensus while leaving aside the Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty (FMCT) on which there is still no approaching consensus,” Mazari, also CEO of Strategic Technology Resources (STR), said.
She added that in fact Pakistan through its ambassador demanded that CD members should state their positions on these issues clearly as it did on the FMCT issue.
The CD was deadlocked because the major powers especially US refused to accept the notion of effective verifiable procedures as part of a FMT, Mazai said. “It was only the Obama Administration that accepted the demand for effective verification,” she further said.
The CEO STR said that US refusal to move equally urgently on three major issues linked to an FMT in the CD that are nuclear disarmament, negative security guarantees and prevention of arms race in outer space (PAROS) caused the stalemate.
While the UNGA resolution of 1993 called for a non-discriminatory FMT, the US and its allies tended to move away from this international consensus by seeking merely a fissile material cut off treaty with no movement on reducing existing fissile material cut off treaty with no movement on reducing existing fissile material stockpile, she pointed out.
She said that countries like China want to see equal progress on other issues like PAROS. “If US and China as well as other countries have no consensus over the issue then for the UN Secretary General and the US to declare that one country is holding up the FMCT in the CD is factually incorrect unless it is a reference to the last twelve years and US mechanizations on dealing with the four related issues together in the CD,” Mazari said.
On bringing the issue of FMCT to UN General Assembly, she said that a UNGA resolution should be welcomed by Pakistan as it would take the pressure off the country in terms of consensus seeking that is bringing it in the CD in Geneva.
Officially, Pakistan has already stated that if the FMCT issue is taken out of the CD, it will stay away. So let the US shift the FMCT issue from the CD to the UNGA, Mazari said. Incidently, UNGA resolutions are not binding either- unlike UNSC resolutions under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, she said. Online