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