Obama's Nuclear Summit

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright April 12, 2010
All Rights Reserved.                                

               Hosting a 47-nation nuclear non-proliferation summit in Washington, D.C., President Barack Obama hoped to piggyback on the new START [Strategic Arms Reduction Talks] treaty singed April 8 in Prague.  Barack and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev agreed to dramatically reduce nuclear arsenals from 2,500 to 1,500 warheads, a 30% reduction.  When the White House announced last week a new first-use nuclear policy, permitting the U.S. to nuke any country that does not sign the Nuclear-Nonproliferation Treaty, Iran’s Supreme Religious Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei blasted the policy as provocation.  Obama has put pressure on Tehran abandon its nuclear enrichment program in exchange for U.S. economic and security aid, allowing Iran to continue a peaceful atomic program.  Khamenei rejected Obama’s new strategy of threatening nuclear war.

            Obama’s nuclear summit highlights the dangers of loose nuclear materials falling into the hands of terrorists like Osama bin Laden.  Once reluctant China now seems onboard to vote new tougher sanctions in the U.N. Security Council.  Because of China’s historic trading relationship with Tehran, they were reluctant to agree to tough new sanctions, including halting Tehran’s petroleum exports.  Iranian Presdient Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has weakened Tehran’s bargaining position by announcing April 10 Iran’s new more efficient uranium enrichment centrifuges.    Ahmandinejad has stonewalled the international community on the demand to stop enriching uranium.  Obama wants Iran to give up its own enrichment activities in exchange for economic and security cooperation.  Iran believes it has the right to peaceful enrichment activities under the Nuclear-Non-proliferation Treaty.

            Speaking on Holocaust Memorial Day, Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Iran seeks nothing short of nuclear Holocaust against the Jewish people.  “The historical failure of the free world in facing the Nazi beast was not confronting it when it could still be stopped,” said “Bibi,” urging delegates at the Washington summit to impose more draconic sanctions on Tehran.  Ahmandienjad’s past remarks about “wiping Israel off the map” only add to Jewish anxieties about Iran’s nuclear ambitions.  For two years, Israel has warned Tehran to cease-and-desist on its nuclear program or face possible retaliation.  Despite differences with China on its currency and allowing the Dalai Lama visit the White House, China appears poised to support Obama’s call for tough sanctions.  With all its internal strife, China needs the U.S. as a friendly ally while it deals with formidable challenges.

            Russia and China have been historically antagonistic to U.S. foreign policy, especially in the former Soviet Union Caucasus states around Georgia, Ukraine Azerbaijan, Armenia, etc., where Russia has competitive petroleum interests. Russia’s recent spate of Chechnyan terrorism in the Moscow subway has brought the country closer to the U.S.  More U.S. cooperation between the C IA and Russia’s FSB [formerly the KGB] has increased the chances that Russia will go along with China on harsh U.N. sanctions against Tehran.  While Russia opposes U.S. financial interests in the BAKU [Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan] pipeline, bringing oil from the Caspian Sean to the Turkish port of Ceyhan on the Mediterranean, it appreciated Obama’s concessions on missile defense in Eastern Europe.  Obama’s Washington summit helps drive home the need for more sanctions against Tehran.

            Iran’s Supreme religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Ahmandienjad and Foreign Minister Manoochehr Mottaki all condemn Obama’s new nuke policy leaving non-signers to the Nuclear-Non-Proliferation Treaty vulnerable to a first strike.  “He [Obama] has implicitly threatened Iranians with nuclear weapons,” Khamenei said in Tehran.  Khamenei ironically wants the U.N. to sanction the U.S. for placing Iran and North Korea—another renegade nuclear state—in the same boat.  For nearly a year, Iran has played cat-and-mouse with the Obama over its refusal to yield on its nuclear program.  “These comments are very strange and the world should not ignore them because in the 21st century . . . the head of a state is threatening nuclear attack,” said Khamemei, taking no responsibility for defying the U.N. Security Council and International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA].

            Obama’s two-day nuclear summit helps the world see more clearly Iran’s defiance of U.N. promptings to end its nuclear enrichment program.  Tehran would have less problems with its nuclear program if Ahmadinejad didn’t shoot off his mouth at every opportunity threatening Israel and denying the Holocaust.  When the Iranian president talks of “wiping Israel off the map,” it gives non-proliferation experts reason for concern.  “From the lectern, I call on the enlightened nations to rise and powerfully condemn Iran’s genocidal intentions, and act with real resolve to stop Iran arming itself with nuclear weapons,” said Netanyahu, urging the U.N. Security Council to finally act to restrain Iran’s nuclear plans.  Barack’s summit puts him on the same page with Russia and China to sign on to more harsh sanctions against Iran, preventing Israel from eventually acting alone.

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.