Egyptian Nukes
The United Nations atomic watchdog agency has found evidence of secret nuclear experiments in Egypt that could be used in weapons programs. Most of the work was carried out in the 1980s and 1990s but the International Atomic Energy Agency is also looking at evidence suggesting some were as recent as a year ago, according to unidentified diplomats. The Egyptians had 'tried to produce various components of uranium' without declaring it to the Vienna-based IAEA, as they are bound to under the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, one diplomat said.They are, of course, claiming this is for peaceful purposes. Obviously no one believes that. As always, the question which arises is what to do about it. We can hope that Egypt will be embarassed about these revelations and chose voluntarily to back away from such development out of fear of becoming a pariah. In this circumstance, I think that a likely result. Egypt is certainly not my favorite government in the world, but the seem to have a desire for 'legitimacy' and to be a member of the world community, so I expect they will publicy abandon this sort of thing and refrain, at least for a while, in any further expiraments of this nature. If they should not do so, well, things will become difficult and in truth their are not any really good answers, only less bad ones perhaps.
posted by Dave Justus | 1/05/2005 09:35:00 AM
2 Comments:
Given the soft treatment Pakistan received -- even A.Q. Khan himself even after revelations of the nuke bazaar he set up -- as long as you nominally identify yourself as an American ally in the war on terror, what pressure would there be for Egypt to abandon a nuclear program?
While I certainly wish that Pakistan didn't have nuclear weapons that particular horse left the barn a while ago.
The A.Q. Khan situation is interesting, but while it is obvious that elements of the Pakistani government were working with him on that endeavor it certainly seems to me that the Pakistani government per se was not behind it or supporting it. Given that, I don't see how, or why, we would 'punish' Pakistan for what he did.
As to his obviously lax punishment for his crimes, the simple truth is that he is a hero to the common Pakistani and popular enough that he is untouchable. While I wish that were different, and am not happy about the situation, I don't know what we, or Pakistan for that matter, can do about it.
I also don't see exactly how this relates to Egypt, in that I am assuming these expiraments were an official government sanctioned attempt to acquire nuclear weapons rather than action by rogue elements.
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