Washington views Tehran's announcement on nuclear plant with skepticism
Saturday, 11 April 2009
From Fazle Rashid
NEW YORK, Apr 10: It was sheer coincidence that Teheran's announcement of opening of its first plant to produce nuclear fuel came a day after British magazine Economist hit the news stand with a cover story on " a world without nuclear weapons".
Iran has defied both friends and adversaries to go ahead with its nuclear ambition. Iran has insisted that its nuclear programme is for civilian purposes, a claim not accepted by Washington. The threat of a global nuclear war has gone down but the risk of a nuclear attack has gone up, the Economist said.
Iran's tough president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad ignored call both from within and without to abandon the nuclear goal. He inaugurated the plant as the country celebrated the occasion as national nuclear day. Iran began uranium enrichment programme three years ago. The US state department viewed the announcement with scepti cism. Highly enriched uranium can be used to produce a nuclear bomb.
The United Nations had warned Iran thrice of a possible economic and other sanctions. America's dual nuclear policy has further compounded the problem. America under president Bush helped India with advanced nuclear technology. India is not a signatory to Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NNPT ). Bush turned down similar call for help from Pakistan and fiercely opposed Iran's nuclear ambition calling it a " evil " nation.
The United States after spending billions of dollars in war against Islamic insurgents on Pak-Afghan border now says India's involvement is a " must " to end Islamic insurgency. India has been a target of insurgents itself and has not been very successful in combating the militants. US optimism about India's assistance has been overblown.
Obama administration in a break from the practice of the Bush administration has urged Congress to quickly approve $83.4 million for war expenses in Iraq and Afghanistan. Bush administration had always made supplementary budget for the war expenses which was not integrated with the defence spending. The United States spends astronomical $21,000 per minute in defence expenditure.
Though US wants active Indian involvement in exterminating the Islamic insurgents casting suspicion about Pakistan's ability to deal with the situation, the Pentagon has proposed a plan to spend $3.0 billion over next five years to train and equip Pakistan military with modern weaponries.
This will help Pakistan to effectively confront the Talebans and al-Qaedas The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) announced yesterday that it was dismantling the hated overseas secret prisons where under the previous regime al-Qaeda and Taleban suspects were subjected to inhuman torture to extract confession. The International Committee of the Red Cross which interviewed 14 prisoners said in a report that prisoners were repeatedly slammed into walls, forced to stand for days with their arms handcuffed to the ceiling, the New York Times in a report said today.
The CIA has never revealed the location of its so-called black sites but various records point to the cells were located in Afghanistan, Thailand, Poland, Rumania and Jordan, NYT said. The United States is now facing a new problem, the ascendancy of pirates in the Indian Ocean. It has "exposed the limits of the world's most powerful military", the same paper said. Driven solely by economic gain, not politics or religion, the band of pirates who captured an American ship are unconventional foe, the same paper reported. Hillary Clinton called the pirates nothing more than criminals.
NEW YORK, Apr 10: It was sheer coincidence that Teheran's announcement of opening of its first plant to produce nuclear fuel came a day after British magazine Economist hit the news stand with a cover story on " a world without nuclear weapons".
Iran has defied both friends and adversaries to go ahead with its nuclear ambition. Iran has insisted that its nuclear programme is for civilian purposes, a claim not accepted by Washington. The threat of a global nuclear war has gone down but the risk of a nuclear attack has gone up, the Economist said.
Iran's tough president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad ignored call both from within and without to abandon the nuclear goal. He inaugurated the plant as the country celebrated the occasion as national nuclear day. Iran began uranium enrichment programme three years ago. The US state department viewed the announcement with scepti cism. Highly enriched uranium can be used to produce a nuclear bomb.
The United Nations had warned Iran thrice of a possible economic and other sanctions. America's dual nuclear policy has further compounded the problem. America under president Bush helped India with advanced nuclear technology. India is not a signatory to Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NNPT ). Bush turned down similar call for help from Pakistan and fiercely opposed Iran's nuclear ambition calling it a " evil " nation.
The United States after spending billions of dollars in war against Islamic insurgents on Pak-Afghan border now says India's involvement is a " must " to end Islamic insurgency. India has been a target of insurgents itself and has not been very successful in combating the militants. US optimism about India's assistance has been overblown.
Obama administration in a break from the practice of the Bush administration has urged Congress to quickly approve $83.4 million for war expenses in Iraq and Afghanistan. Bush administration had always made supplementary budget for the war expenses which was not integrated with the defence spending. The United States spends astronomical $21,000 per minute in defence expenditure.
Though US wants active Indian involvement in exterminating the Islamic insurgents casting suspicion about Pakistan's ability to deal with the situation, the Pentagon has proposed a plan to spend $3.0 billion over next five years to train and equip Pakistan military with modern weaponries.
This will help Pakistan to effectively confront the Talebans and al-Qaedas The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) announced yesterday that it was dismantling the hated overseas secret prisons where under the previous regime al-Qaeda and Taleban suspects were subjected to inhuman torture to extract confession. The International Committee of the Red Cross which interviewed 14 prisoners said in a report that prisoners were repeatedly slammed into walls, forced to stand for days with their arms handcuffed to the ceiling, the New York Times in a report said today.
The CIA has never revealed the location of its so-called black sites but various records point to the cells were located in Afghanistan, Thailand, Poland, Rumania and Jordan, NYT said. The United States is now facing a new problem, the ascendancy of pirates in the Indian Ocean. It has "exposed the limits of the world's most powerful military", the same paper said. Driven solely by economic gain, not politics or religion, the band of pirates who captured an American ship are unconventional foe, the same paper reported. Hillary Clinton called the pirates nothing more than criminals.