Nuclear related 270807

Jordan to accelerate nuclear program

Jordan's King Abdullah II on Sunday called for an acceleration of his kingdom's nuclear energy program in order to decrease the nation's dependence on imported energy, reported the Petra news agency.

Jordanian energy chief Khaled al-Shraydeh recently announced that the country possesses more than enough processed and raw uranium to fuel the nuclear program.

Jordan joins Egypt and six Persian Gulf states that also recently launched peaceful nuclear programs.

Analysts have expressed concern that has Iran's nuclear program advances, nuclear programs in Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia could become military in nature in order to counter the Iranian threat. If that happens, future, less stable regimes in Amman, Cairo and Riyadh could be in possession of devastating weapons of mass destruction.

Source : israeltoday

Resurgent Gadhafi flexing his muscle

The Leader conducts business in a huge Bedouin tent covered with rugs inside a compound where camels roam free. This is where he receives rebel leaders who make individual pilgrimages to the tent in suburban Tripoli, Libya, and often leave with a Samsonite bag filled with cash.

In the past year, the tent has seen a lot of action. The Libyan leader, Col. Moammar Gadhafi, has hosted meetings to broker agreements over Darfur, and it was assumed that the road to peace in that war-ravaged region of western Sudan would go through Tripoli. The Tripoli Format, as it became known, drew together neighboring governments, rebel groups, and members of the UN Security Council and the African Union.

Gadhafi presided over talks between Sudanese rebel groups and Khartoum; Chadian rebel groups and N'Djamena; the leaders of such neighboring countries as Eritrea, Egypt and Nigeria; or between the Sudanese rebel groups themselves.

With vast oil reserves and a stash of hard currency, Gadhafi has influence in the region like no other African leader—and on the Darfur conflict, the self-fashioned King of Africa is flexing his muscles.

"Gadhafi is using this opportunity to reassert himself politically in the neighborhood, after years of isolation," said Colin Thomas-Jensen, a policy adviser for Enough, a non-profit anti-genocide project.

"What Gadhafi has that no one else has is the weight to convene," Thomas-Jensen said. "When he says you need to come to Tripoli, no one says no, because the money he could provide to your enemies could destroy you."

Last week, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State David Welch was in Libya, setting up what is expected to be the first trip by a secretary of state to the north African country since John Foster Dulles in 1953—when Libya housed an American air base.

Libyan officials have said that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will visit Tripoli at the end of October. That date has not been confirmed by the State Department, but "from a political sense, I would not be surprised if there was a visit by the end of the year," a senior State Department official said.

After years as an international pariah, the leader dubbed the "mad dog of the Middle East" by President Reagan is back in business. In May, he hosted departing British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who signed an agreement to allow Libya to buy air-defense and missile systems from Britain, and announced a $900 million oil and gas exploration deal between BP and the Libyan government.

In July, Gadhafi received French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose wife, Cecilia, had been involved in negotiations for the release of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian physician imprisoned in Libya on charges of infecting children with HIV. A deal was struck for Libya to purchase a French nuclear reactor and receive millions of dollars to improve its health-care system and compensate patients infected with the AIDS virus.

Rice's visit likely will focus on building up Gadhafi as a key counterterrorism ally because of his useful intelligence network and because he has concerns about Al Qaeda, which has made attempts on his life. Also, the Bush administration likely is interested in opening up Libya's oil industry to American companies.

In recent months, Gadhafi has invited American professors, including Michael Porter and Joseph Nye of Harvard University, to talk to him about globalizing Libya's economy.

Whatever Gadhafi's strategy, domestically or internationally, he aims to keep everyone guessing. He worked aggressively for peace between Chad and Sudan, but that was seen as an effort to keep an international peacekeeping force out of his back yard. Some think he seeks to keep the situation destabilized by sprinkling money on opposing sides so that he is the only true power.

"He's been around for 40 years and knows change in Africa does not come through democracy—it's at the end of a gun," said Janet McElligott, a former spokeswoman for the Sudanese peace talks. "So he moves around with suitcases full of cash, supporting people. He sees himself as the central bank of Africa."

His modus operandi, observers say, has been to bestow insurgents with cash to enable them to fight their respective governments. Either way, he wins: If the rebels triumph, he has them in his pocket; if the government starts winning, he initiates a peace process and becomes the dealmaker.

Last month, however, he lost the fight to keep UN peacekeepers out when the Security Council authorized a joint UN-African Union force of 26,000 troops for Darfur, where fighting has claimed more than 200,000 lives since ethnic African rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated government in 2003.

His role now will be to ensure that all the numerous rebel groups unify their positions against the government. Although almost all of them agreed on a common platform for peace talks, some have threatened to back out of the political process, charging that Khartoum was targeting rebels in Darfur's refugee camps.

Some say Gadhafi is more effective at stoking than stopping conflict. The success of the peacekeepers in Darfur depends on whether Sudan's neighbors see peacekeepers' presence to be in their best interest. If Gadhafi decides that it is not, he could buy off a rebel group or two, intensifying rebel divisions and scuttling the peace process.

On Saturday, Gadhafi is to give his annual address on the anniversary of the 1969 coup that brought him to power.

Gadhafi, who has no formal position but is universally known as The Leader, sought for years to be a pan-Arab leader. His Arab alliance was responsible for creating the original janjaweed, the Arab militia fighting the rebels in Darfur. Recently, however, he shifted his focus to Africa, proposing a "United States of Africa"—with himself at the helm. He also persuaded African leaders to form the African Union in 2002.

After the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, Libya became a haven for Palestinian guerrilla groups, and Gadhafi became known as a major financier of armed "liberation movements" around the world, including the IRA in Northern Ireland and the Basque separatist group ETA in Spain. Libyan agents were charged with bombing a Berlin nightclub in 1986 and the bombing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 270 people. In retaliation for the Berlin bombing, Reagan approved an air strike on Gadhafi's compound in 1986.

In 2003, Gadhafi surprised the world by renouncing his country's nuclear weapons program, which many say was never operational, formally accepting responsibility for Pan Am 103 and agreeing to pay $10 million in compensation to each victim's family. While he made good on the first two installments, he withheld the last payment of the $2.7 billion because the U.S. didn't immediately fulfill its promise to take Libya off its list of state sponsors of terrorism.

In May, the Bush administration re-established diplomatic relations with Libya and recently nominated Gene Kretz to become ambassador to Tripoli. But a Senate coalition has vowed to block Kretz's confirmation until Gadhafi makes good on his final payment.

And what happens after that? As McElligott said, "Well, there is always another rebel group."

Source: Chicago Tribune



Gulf set to go nuclear

By MARK SUMMERS

MANAMA: Nuclear power plants could be built in the Gulf, following talks with international experts in Vienna.

Officials are fresh back from talks between the GCC and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), to map out the possibilities.

A final feasibility report is expected by March 5, it was revealed yesterday.

The draft report will be discussed at further GCC-IAEA talks in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on October 24, according to a statement released by the Electricity and Works Ministry.

Assistant Under-Secretary for Planning and Projects Dr Khalid Burashid has just returned from the Vienna talks.

Available fossil fuel resources, primarily oil and gas, in the GCC will meet rapid development in the region for many years to come, said the statement.

"However, it is felt necessary at this point of time to deploy the nuclear option, with technical and financial capabilities within these states, for peaceful applications, including research and development."

Source: Gulf Daily News, Bahrein

France helping Arab states with nuke programs

---

Yaniv Salama-Scheer , THE JERUSALEM POST

Aug. 24, 2007

---

France is acting to provide several Arab countries with peaceful nuclear programs, in order to wean the region off oil and boost Franco-Arab relations, a senior French Foreign Ministry official told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.

France has forged a nuclear cooperation deal with Libya and has discussed the possibility with Algeria and the United Arab Emirates.

The French have made sure that the programs would be only for "peaceful civil programs," the official said - mainly to supply drinking water by desalination.

"To move away from dependency on oil, an alternative must be introduced. That alternative is a civilian nuclear program," the French Foreign Ministry official said. "The position of the French government is clear - that we are in favor of a civilian nuclear buildup, but in a controlled framework."

French policy was also based on a "reward system" that would encourage other countries to abandon undesirable policies, the official said. "It is a message, that says loud and clear: 'Bring your attitudes and practices in line with the rest of the world, and you will be rewarded.'"

The best example of this, according to the official, is Libya. "They were in a bad situation in 2003 and were forced to abandon their program. Now they have turned the page and are willing to abide by the guidelines of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, which they have signed."

The nuclear technology will be supplied by the French manufacturer Areva, which manufactures state-of-the-art EPR (European pressurized water reactor) desalination plants. "The foreign governments work with the private sector in France, which then works with the president. We are not involved with the process," a French Defense Ministry official said.

French President Nicholas Sarkozy has gone on record as saying that Arab countries must be "trusted" with nuclear technology, and that denying it to them could result in a "clash of civilizations."

Sarkozy also says denying North African countries such technology would stunt their development and jeopardize their ability to fight "terrorism and fanaticism."

"Look at Iran," the French Foreign Ministry official said. "Iran cannot give us or the rest of the world guarantees that its program is solely for peaceful purposes. It is a question of confidence. If Iran would comply with the IAEA's and the UN's [requirements], then [UN Security Council] Resolutions 1737 and 1747 would be lifted. If they would then cooperate with the IAEA and abide by the NPT, well, then maybe one day we could even dream about Iran having the technology."

The nuclear assistance also has a great deal to do with France's desire for increased influence in the region.

"It is a new time for Franco-Arab relations, which are far stronger and much more intense than in the past," Francois Zimeray, a former member of the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs and Defense committees, told the Post. "We are no longer dependent on Arab resources. The base of our relations is very different. Then, we were the buyers; now, we are the sellers."

Because France produces the world's most advanced civilian nuclear products, Zimeray said, its exports allow France to garner regional influence, which is "very important and strategic," to counterbalance the Chinese and Russian presence in Asia and Africa.

"If these countries want to go nuclear, better they go to France than to China and Russia. France is also a better friend to Israel ... President Sarkozy is very concerned for the security of Israel and would make sure that security guarantees are provided so that the programs could not be transformed from civilian to military [uses]," Zimeray said.

In December, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council, whose members are Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and the UAE, announced a joint project for peaceful nuclear energy. Jordan and Egypt have expressed a desire to go nuclear as well, in hopes of conserving their natural gas and oil reserves.

Most recently, Yemen also jumped on to the nuclear bandwagon. Its minister of environment, Mustafa Yehya, announced this week that "specialized international firms" would build a nuclear reactor to produce electricity.

"While there is a potential risk involved," Zimeray said, "there is a fundamental imperative to get these countries off oil. Supplying these countries with a [nuclear] program is not a bad thing from an environmental standpoint, especially in a world where we face a serious global warming threat. But you must also understand, these countries are building cities, not bombs."

An Israeli government spokesman said that while France was holding discussions about this issue with Algeria and the UAE, they were very much in the preliminary stages and years away from fruition. The official also said it was unclear whether these countries had the ability to operate and maintain nuclear plants.

France agreed to supply Libya with a nuclear power station as part of the deal last month to release five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor from Libyan captivity, sparking outrage in France and leading to the establishment of a parliamentary committee of inquiry on the matter.

Source : Jerusalem Post