(New York Times) William J. Broad and David E. Sanger - The opening Monday of a month-long UN conference to strengthen the main treaty meant to halt the spread of nuclear arms is likely to be dominated by Iran's president denouncing the West and Secretary of State Clinton warning that if Tehran gets the bomb, the rest of the Middle East will soon follow. But far less visibly, the Obama administration has been mounting a country-by-country campaign to go beyond the treaty and ensure that Iran's push toward atomic mastery does not ignite a regional nuclear arms race. The administration is trying to entice Middle Eastern states out of enriching uranium for reactor fuel and later scavenging spent fuel for plutonium, a step known as reprocessing. Every country in the region except Lebanon is planning to build nuclear reactors or has declared an interest in doing so.
2010-05-03 07:52:56Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive