By Marwan Bishara
Al-Jazeera
"As the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference convenes here in New York this week to assess compliance and to agree on steps to achieve its goals, the world cannot afford a repeat of its 2005 fiasco.
There is a general perception that the NPT regime is in bad shape. In reality, it is worse.
Behind its failures lie double standards and narrow strategic thinking by its five certified nuclear powers, which hampers implementation of its decisions and erodes its credibility.
At the heart of the NPT crisis are three failures relating to the treaty's three main pillars: Disarmament, non-proliferation and access to civilian nuclear energy.....
Double standard ...
When it comes to the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, the words that trump all others are double standard.
While certain states have pursued nuclear weapons programmes to fulfill national ambition or to achieve hegemony, generally their pursuit was possible thanks to a double standard on the part of the world's five nuclear powers.
Take the countries that did not sign and/or violated the non-proliferation regime in one way or another: Israel, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Iran.
They are listed above according to the potency of their nuclear weaponisation and deployment. But in terms of Western-led reaction, Iran tops the list with Israel last on the Western agenda.
Iran then North Korea, and on to Pakistan with India and notably Israel accepted as de facto nuclear powers with little or no comment.....
Alas, the US/Western obsession with Iran has been devoid of geopolitical consideration, and the need to emphasise the importance of a world, or at least a Middle East region, free of nuclear weapons.
When the new round of sanctions fail to force Iran to back track on its nuclear programme, as other sanctions have failed before, the non-proliferation efforts will have been damaged, leaving the region at the mercy of less diplomatic means."
Al-Jazeera
"As the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference convenes here in New York this week to assess compliance and to agree on steps to achieve its goals, the world cannot afford a repeat of its 2005 fiasco.
There is a general perception that the NPT regime is in bad shape. In reality, it is worse.
Behind its failures lie double standards and narrow strategic thinking by its five certified nuclear powers, which hampers implementation of its decisions and erodes its credibility.
At the heart of the NPT crisis are three failures relating to the treaty's three main pillars: Disarmament, non-proliferation and access to civilian nuclear energy.....
Double standard ...
When it comes to the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, the words that trump all others are double standard.
While certain states have pursued nuclear weapons programmes to fulfill national ambition or to achieve hegemony, generally their pursuit was possible thanks to a double standard on the part of the world's five nuclear powers.
Take the countries that did not sign and/or violated the non-proliferation regime in one way or another: Israel, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Iran.
They are listed above according to the potency of their nuclear weaponisation and deployment. But in terms of Western-led reaction, Iran tops the list with Israel last on the Western agenda.
Iran then North Korea, and on to Pakistan with India and notably Israel accepted as de facto nuclear powers with little or no comment.....
Alas, the US/Western obsession with Iran has been devoid of geopolitical consideration, and the need to emphasise the importance of a world, or at least a Middle East region, free of nuclear weapons.
When the new round of sanctions fail to force Iran to back track on its nuclear programme, as other sanctions have failed before, the non-proliferation efforts will have been damaged, leaving the region at the mercy of less diplomatic means."
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