How Iran deal could help head off a future nuclear crisis (+video)
WASHINGTON The Iran nuclear deal reached Thursday may only be an outline, with much of the most difficult work still to come before a June 30 deadline. But already some experts are seeing in the deal a potential template for how to block the emergence of a new generation of nuclear-armed powers.
Galloping electricity needs and intensifying international efforts to cut carbon emissions are prompting more countries to add nuclear power plants. That makes the need for toughened international restrictions on supposedly peaceful civilian nuclear programs urgent, some say.
In the case of Iran, the international community moved aggressively to prevent a civilian program from becoming something more dangerous. But the situation has shown how other countries could take the same path if not suitably monitored.
As early as this month, world powers could begin to consider whether the Iran deal, which is shaping up to be the most stringent international plan ever for limiting a civilian nuclear program, should become part of a new global standard.
The Iran framework agreements provisions seem to reflect a growing appreciation by officials of just how potentially useful peaceful nuclear activities and materials can be for making bombs, says Henry Sokolski, executive director of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center in Washington. Why wouldnt we want to make these rules apply generally and become an international standard?
Negotiators must still lay down specifics and clarify ambiguous language, but the Iran framework agreement sets strict limits on uranium enrichment, bans plutonium reprocessing, and establishes an intrusive international inspections regime.
An opportunity to gauge interest in extending some of these restrictions globally will come later this month at the month-long review conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, or NPT.
The conference could be the right moment, some diplomats say, for world leaders to test the global appetite for making some of the Iran deals tough provisions a model for international restraints. If nothing else, some say, world leaders need to consider how the Iran crisis underscores weaknesses in the nonproliferation regime. Iran, after all, was a signatory of the NPT.
The Iranian problem has exposed significant vulnerabilities under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, especially the absence of a clear divide between civilian and nuclear programs, wrote William Burns, a former deputy secretary of State and now president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, in a New York Times opinion piece Friday.
As more countries look to nuclear technologies to meet energy needs, the international community will need to build a sturdy firewall between peaceful and military nuclear uses, said Mr. Burns. Measures of the Iran agreement could be seen as useful future benchmarks.
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How Iran deal could help head off a future nuclear crisis (+video)