Administration Foresees Strong Support For New START

Today's top nuclear policy stories, with excerpts in bullet form.

Stories we're following today: Wednesday, October 6, 2010.

US Seeks Big Vote on Russia Nuclear Arms Pact – Edith M. Lederer for The Associated Press 

• The Obama administration is hoping for an overwhelming Senate vote this year to ratify the new arms control treaty with Russia, the chief U.S. negotiator said Tuesday.
• Rose Gottemoeller said chances for ratification of the New START Treaty in the "lame duck" session after the November midterm elections are "good."
• She pointed to the 14-4 bipartisan vote in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last month which sent the treaty to the full Senate, and the administration's efforts to build support including answering about 900 questions from senators and holding 18 hearings and four major briefings.
• Gottemoeller recalled that the 1992 START treaty to reduce the nuclear arsenals of the United States and then Soviet Union was the last major treaty ratified by the Senate on Oct. 1, 1992.
• "We are hoping that we will have the same kind of vote which was the vote for the START treaty, 95-0 against," she said. "We're looking for that kind of vote this time around as well."

US 'Disappointment' Over Continued Logjam in Nuclear Pact – AFP [link]

• The United States on Tuesday expressed "disappointment" over an impasse in global disarmament talks that have set back efforts to limit access to materials that can be used to build a nuclear weapon.
• Rose Gottemoeller, US assistant secretary of state for arms control, verification and compliance, alluded to foot-dragging by nuclear-armed Pakistan and warned "our patience will not last for ever."
• Since last year, Pakistan has blocked a resumption of negotiations on the nuclear agenda for the Disarmament Conference, fearing that an agreement would lock in an imbalance in its nuclear arsenal vis-a-vis that of India.
• "We will do everything so that we can have talks go forward -- there is no reason to stand still," Gottemoeller added.

Pakistan Steps Up Nuclear Construction – Shaun Tandon for AFP [link]

• Pakistan appears to have stepped up construction of a new atomic reactor that could help the country produce easier-to-deliver nuclear weapons, a US research institute said.
• The Institute for Science and International Security, a private US group which is critical of nuclear weapons and a Ploughshares Fund Grantee, said Tuesday it observed progress at Pakistan's tightly guarded Khushab site which is key to plutonium production.
• Pakistan opposes a proposed Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty, which would limit access to highly enriched uranium and plutonium used to make nuclear weapons. Pakistan believes the treaty would lock in a nuclear imbalance in favor of India, with which it has fought three full-fledged wars since independence in 1947.
• Joseph Cirincione, president of the Ploughshares Fund which supports a nuclear weapons-free world, said that the current safety of Pakistan's arsenal was not the issue.
• "It's the security of the government that worries me. If the government falls that's when the nightmare comes," Cirincione said.
• "American politicians and policymakers live in a constant state of denial about Pakistan. They see a mess and then they look away and pretend it's all going to get better somehow," he said.

U.A.E. Banks Cut Ties To Iranian Banks Blacklisted By U.S. – Chip Cummins and Jay Solomon for The Wall Street Journal 

• Banks in the United Arab Emirates have curtailed financial dealings with a handful of Iranian banks blacklisted by the U.S. Treasury, officials here said, drying up one of Iran's financial lifelines as international sanctions continue to aim at curbing Tehran's nuclear ambitions.
• The U.A.E.'s move is especially significant since Dubai has in recent years been an important re-export hub for Iranian importers, prohibited by previous sanctions from importing goods directly from the U.S. and elsewhere.
• Stuart Levey, the U.S. Treasury's point man on sanctions, traveled in late August to the U.A.E., Bahrain and Lebanon to meet with officials and explain Washington's new financial-sanctions law.
• Levey said he found a "new seriousness" among Middle East banking institutions in cooperating with the international banking sector over Iran sanctions. "I have found a real and intense interest, especially [among] financial institutions" in the region, he said in a telephone interview during the trip.

Will the Obama Administration Sanction Chinese Companies Doing Business in Iran – Josh Rogin "The Cable" a Foreign Policy Blog [link]

• The State Department has been stepping up both its rhetorical and punitive actions against Iran, but the question still remains whether the administration will go as far as to sanction companies based in countries where relations are delicate, especially China.
• On Monday, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a new report that identified 16 companies as having sold petroleum products to Iran between Jan. 1, 2009, and June 30, 2010. Of those 16, the GAO reported that five have shown no signs of curtailing business with Iran. Three of those companies are based in China, one in Singapore, and one in the UAE.
• There are some positive signs, however, that international pressure is having an effect on companies' willingness to do business in Iran…But leading senators aren't convinced that the holdouts are planning to follow suit. They are pressing the Obama administration to use the new sanctions law to punish those who won't go along -- especially if they are from China.
• What's clear is that the administration is not yet finished implementing sanctions against firms doing business with Iran, and Congress will be pressing it not to back down from punishing companies from countries that may take retaliatory measures.