Pakistan Information & News

Minister Pranab Mukherjee of India has said India was free to make nuclear bomb keeping in view regional situation and its defence needs. Speaking at a seminar , he said “just as India has the right to make a nuclear bomb, countries who are against it have the right to oppose. Among the 185 countries in the world, there are big powers like the US and very small countries like Fiji and the Solomon Islands. All are sovereign and have equal rights. “

He said Indo-US nuclear deal would not compromise India’s independent foreign policy. This nuke agreement was not a military deal, he said adding India was also following ‘no first strike’ policy announced by it after the Pokhran tests in 1998.

The deal, he said would enable India to break the nuclear apartheid. He said when he was Defence Minister, he came to know that scientists from the Defence Research and Development Organisation were not being allowed to attend international seminars on the allegation that they were involved in making the nuclear bomb. The nuke deal would reverse the situation

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Pakistan has urged to world community and authorities to form equal guidelines and policies to obtain benefits from nuclear energy process to meet the energy shortage .

Pakistan is committed to non proliferation but the need of time is to explore in this area for peaceful purpose.

“A non-discriminatory approach in promotion of civilian nuclear cooperation would help reinforce confidence and creditability in the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) safeguards system and strengthen the non-proliferation regime,” he said while speaking in the 192-member assembly in the course of a debate on the report of the U.N’s nuclear watchdog.

Tarar said the Agency could make a “significant” contribution to meeting twenty-first century needs by ensuring equitable access to nuclear materials, technology and equipment for peaceful purposes.

The Agency’s founding “Atoms for Peace” paradigm must be at the centre of any future vision, he said, explaining that such a vision could be ensured only with a balance between its promotional activities, and work in verification, nuclear safety and security.

The Pakistani delegate urged the agency to maintain its focus on its technical promotional character.

Pakistan had been a major beneficiary of the Technical Cooperation Programme, and he appreciated the Department of Technical Cooperation’s excellent programme delivery. For its part, Pakistan was prepared to contribute to the Agency’s promotional activities.

Pakistan had advocated harnessing nuclear technology for peace, and had developed the entire range of the nuclear fuel cycle facilities, he said, noting that two nuclear power plants were in operation, a third was under construction, and plans were under way to establish a uranium conversion and enrichment facility.

He said he looked forward to the Agency’s assistance to complete its nuclear power generation plan.

In addition, Tarar said Pakistan’s atomic energy development programme had always recognized nuclear safety and security, in the national and international context, as a vital objective, and the Government had followed guidance contained in the Agency’s Code of Conduct on the Safety and Security of Radioactive Sources.

In conclusion, Tarar reiterated Pakistan’s commitment to nuclear non-proliferation, noting that his country’s track record on safeguards was “immaculate”.

Effective controls, he added, were in place for the export of goods, technologies and facilities related to nuclear weapons and their delivery systems.

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USA the president Bush spoke hours after North Korea submitted its long awaited declaration detailing its nuclear weapons activities. The government said that it would televise the demolition of the cooling tower at its Yongbyon nuclear facility on Friday. Turned over documents to China about its plutonium core and waste activities and today is a positive day and it is a positive step forward Bush said from the White House Rose Garden. My point is this: We’ll see. They said they are going to destroy parts of their plant in Pyongyang. That is a very positive step but Bush added. We will trust you only to the extent that you fulfill your promises. I am pleased with the progress there are no illusions this is the first step. Bush said that in response to North Korea the USA would erase trade sanctions under the Trading with the Enemy Act and notify Congress that in forty-five days it intends to take North Korea off the State Department list of nations that sponsor terrorism. The 2 actions America is taking will have real impact on North Koreas financial and diplomatic isolation he said U.N Security Council resolutions remain intact however and other requirements still must be met including an accounting of several Japanese citizens who were abducted in the 1970s and ’80s. Ahead of the president’s remarks the White House issued a statement on Thursday morning welcoming the North Korean nuclear declaration. However it noted that in order to end its isolation North Korea must resolve outstanding questions on its highly enriched uranium and proliferation activities and the declaration does not do that despite the Feb. 13 2007 road map for the action for action phase of the larger denuclearization accord which obligated North Korea to provide a complete declaration of all nuclear programs by Dec. 31 2007 and outstanding are still questions on the extent of uranium enrichment and proliferation mainly to Syria. Likewise it does not include the number and location of nuclear bombs of which North Korea is believed to have at least a half dozen. At most the declaration acknowledges USA concerns about those details. Likewise while the cooling tower explosion will be verifiable it is only one element of a nuclear track and can be rebuilt in a year if the government of Kim Jong il has a change of heart and A U.S. official said North Korea has agreed to intensive U.S. verification of its plutonium production for nuclear weapons. Paperwork handed over to Chinese officials contains detailed data on the amount of plutonium produced during each of several rounds of production at a now shuttered plutonium reactor. The official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the U.S. will check North Korea’s math through a combination of documents interviews and onsite visits to the reactor and speaking after the president National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley reiterated that North Koreas declaration was only a stepping stone and said concerns over the program remain. Although North Korea declared its nuclear weapons program defunct its involvement with Syria and the amount of plutonium produced and uranium enrichment need to be explored he said our intelligence community has some concerns about their past activities, and has some concerns about potentially ongoing activities. And we have been learning more about these potential activities as part of the six-party process Hadley said. Hadley also downplayed the level of freedom North Korea will receive through the lifting of sanctions. He said the new rule will ease licensing for Americans who want to import North Korean goods allow more Americans to participate in shipments of third party goods to North Korea and lift prohibitions with some financial transactions between Americans and the North Korean government. The USA also agreed to increase fuel oil shipments to North Korea in response to their declaration but he noted that the president also immediately issued an executive order broadening prohibitions on interaction between Americans and North Korean boats and freezing some assets. These are symbolic acts Hadley said of the gestures made by Bush. They have some consequences in terms of easing sanctions. I will tell you and the North Koreans understand, that the degree of easing sanctions is relatively minor. Bush said that the 6 Party Talks yielded success in returning North Korea to the international community much the way Libya has done in the past few years but if Pyongyang does not respond to additional requirements there will be further consequences.

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In accordance with Pakistan’s well known nuclear policy of responsibility and restraint as reaffirmed by the Chief Executive on several occasions, and with the objective of creating an institutionalized command and control mechanism, consistent with Pakistan’s obligations as a nuclear power, the National Security Council on Feb. 2 approved the establishment of National Command Authority (NCA). The meeting was chaired by the Chief Executive General Pervez Musharraf. NCA will be responsible for policy formulation, and will exercise employment and development control over all strategic nuclear forces and strategic organizations. It will comprise two committees, including, Employment Control Committee and Development Control Committee as well as Strategic Plans Division which will act as Secretariat. The apex “Employment Control Committee” will be chaired by the Head of the Government and include Minister of Foreign Affairs (Deputy Chairman), Minister of Defence, Minister for Interior, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC), Services Chiefs, Director General Strategic Plans Division (Secretary) and Technical Advisors/others as required by the Chairman. The Development Control Committee will also be chaired by the Head of the Government and include CJCSC (Deputy Chairman), Service Chiefs, Director General Strategic Plans Division and representative of the Strategic organisation and scientific community. The Committee will control development of strategic assets. Strategic Plans Division, headed by a senior army officer has been established in the Joint Services Headquarters under CJCSC. It will act as the secretariat for NCA and will perform the functions of planning and coordination in particular for establishing a reliable command, control, communication, computers and intelligence (C4I) network for the NCA.

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ABC News’ Teddy Davis Reports: For the second presidential debate in a row, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., came under fire for an Aug. 1 speech in which he said he would go after high-value Al Qaeda targets in Pakistan if the country’s president was not willing to act.

Watch the video HERE.

“You can think big but remember you shouldn’t always say everything you think when you’re running for president because it could have consequences across the world and we don’t need that right now,” said Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.

Clinton’s criticism of Obama, which was echoed at Tuesday’s Democratic forum by Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and added to by Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., came two days after the Illinois Democrat was hammered for his policy towards Pakistan by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney at a GOP debate sponsored by ABC News.

Obama, who had the bulk of the Chicago crowd with him during the tense exchange, fired back at Clinton and Dodd by contrasting his early opposition to the Iraq war with the pro-war votes cast by his Democratic rivals in 2002.

Read full story at ABC News

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Russia has made its first shipment of nuclear fuel to an Iranian nuclear power plant at the center of the international tensions over Tehran’s atomic program, the Foreign Ministry said Monday.

Iran contends its plant in the southern city of Bushehr is strictly for civilian purposes, but the project concerns the United States and others who fear Tehran could use it to advance efforts to build nuclear weapons.

Russia is building the Bushehr plant — construction that has been frequently delayed. Officials said the delays were due to payment disputes, but many

observers suggested Russia also was unhappy with Iran’s resistance to international Immigration a Big Issue to NH, Iowa GOP163 pressure to make its nuclear program more open and to assure the international community that it was not developing nuclear arms.

Russia announced last week that its construction disputes with Iran had been resolved and said fuel deliveries would begin about a half year before Bushehr was expected to go into service.

“All fuel that will be delivered will be under the control and guarantees of the International Atomic Energy Agency for the whole time it stays on Iranian territory,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “Moreover, the Iranian side gave additional written guarantees that the fuel will be used only for the Bushehr nuclear power plant.”

Iran confirmed that it had received the shipment, the official Iranian news agency IRNA reported.

“The first nuclear fuel shipment for the Bushehr atomic power plant arrived in Iran Monday,” IRNA quoted Iranian Vice President Gholam Reza Aghazadeh as saying.

Aghazadeh said the Bushehr plant was 95 percent complete and would begin operations “next year.” He indicated the reactor needed 80 tons of nuclear fuel during the initial phase of operation, but did not provide further details.

The U.S. has been pushing the U.N. Security Council to pass a third round of sanctions against Iran for its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment.

The American effort became more difficult earlier this month with the release of a new U.S. intelligence report that concluded Iran had halted its nuclear weapons development program in 2003 and had not resumed it through at least the middle of this year.

Although Russia has resisted drives to impose sanctions on Iran, it also repeatedly has urged Tehran to cooperate with the Vienna, Austria-based IAEA to resolve concerns over the nuclear program.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov underlined that position last week after a meeting in Moscow with his Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki.

Lavrov said resolving the controversy is possible “solely on the basis of the nuclear nonproliferation treaty, IAEA rules and principles and, certainly, with Iran proving its right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy.”

Officials at Atomstroyexport, the Russian contractor for Bushehr, raised the prospect last week of creating a Russian-Iranian joint venture “to ensure security” at the Bushehr plant, according to the RIA-Novosti agency.

That could indicate Russian interest in ensuring that enriched uranium at the plant is not stolen or diverted. Depleted fuel rods also could be reprocessed into plutonium.

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