Washington, April 30: Top US arms control negotiator Ellen Tauscher on Thursday set modest ambitions for next week’s UN nuclear talks, saying the event would be successful even without a consensus final document.
“A final document, which can only be reached by consensus of all 189 nations — and yes, that includes Iran — can be valuable,” Tauscher told the Center for American Progress, a think tank.
“It can energize our efforts, but it cannot change the substance of the treaty,” the assistant secretary of state for arms control and international security.
“In our view, whether there is a consensus final document should not be the measuring stick to judge the success of the review conference,” according to a copy of her remarks.
“A final document can easily be blocked by the extreme agendas of a few,” Tauscher said.
“A review conference that reaffirms the basic bargain at the heart of the treaty and demonstrates broad support for strengthening nonproliferation measures should be considered success,” she added.
“A draft final document or a streamlined action plan that draws the support of all but a few outliers would meet this definition of success,” she said.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who will attend the event, warned Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that he will fail if he tries to “divert attention” from the conference’s goals or “cause confusion” about Iran’s aims.
The United States charges that Iran is secretly developing atomic weapons but Iran says its program is to generate electricity.
Ahmadinejad has repeatedly said Iran opposes nuclear weapons and is almost certain to hammer this theme in New York if he gets a visa.
There is concern the Iranian crisis could distract attention at the meeting of the 189 NPT signatories from making progress on disarmament and tougher monitoring of nuclear programs worldwide. The last of the five-year reviews foundered in 2005 over these issues and did not even release a final document.
–Agencies