Don’t Bomb Iran

The U.S. on Monday again expressed regret over the signing of a new treaty to set up a nuclear weapon-free zone in Central Asia. France and Britain are also opposed; the treaty means existing nuclear powers won’t be able to station their nukes in some of the huge central Asian bases that have sprung up round the Caspian, like the significant Manas air base base in Kyrgyzstan

U.S. Embassy: Central Asian nuclear-free zone treaty has possible loopholes
The Associated Press September 11, 2006

ALMATY, Kazakhstan The U.S. on Monday again expressed regret over a new treaty to set up a nuclear weapon-free zone in Central Asia, saying the agreement has possible loopholes.

Under the treaty signed Friday, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan commit themselves not to produce, buy or allow the deployment of nuclear weapons on their soil.

The United States, Britain and France, however, warned that the language of the treaty is ambiguous and could give previous security agreements precedence over the treaty.

One concern is a 1992 treaty that Russia signed with four of the five nations which Moscow claims could allow missiles to be deployed in the region; Kazakh Foreign Minister Kasymzhomart Tokayev said Friday that the question remained open to interpretation.

The U.S. Embassy in Kazakhstan warned in a statement Monday that “other international treaties could take precedence over the provisions of this treaty, and thus obviate the central objective of creating a zone free of nuclear weapons.”

Such nuclear free zone treaties come with legally binding protocols attached, by which the five official nuclear powers — the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China — agree to view these zones as off-limits to their nuclear weapons.

The nuclear powers are often reluctant to recognize such zones because they could limit their future nuclear deployments or the movement of their nuclear-armed forces through those areas.

Russia and China have backed the Central Asian zone.

Under the treaty, the Central Asian nations lying north of Iran and Afghanistan commit themselves to enhanced International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards regarding security of nuclear facilities and radioactive waste — something that could ease concerns about possible use of the energy-rich region as a source or transit corridor for smuggling nuclear materials.

The five Central Asian nations whose combined territory covers more than 3.8 million square kilometers (1.5 million square miles) housed parts of the Soviet nuclear infrastructure. Kazakhstan housed the fourth largest nuclear arsenal in the world, which later was withdrawn after the 1991 Soviet collapse.