UNITED NATIONS (AP) [off the wire, no direct link yet] - Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Friday that recent nuclear developments in North Korea and Iran underscore the urgent need to strengthen the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. |
No shit. Did they just figure this out? Maybe it's a bad idea for bad people to have WMDs, especially nuclear weapons.
He expressed concern that delegates from 188 nations meeting at U.N. headquarters to review the treaty took nearly two weeks just to adopt an agenda and urged them to accelerate their work and start focusing on the important substantive issues.
But delegates attending the month-long review conference were still wrangling Friday over the other key procedural issue - allocating items on the agenda to three main committees and determining how the committees will organize their work. |
Again, no shit. Me saying "Maybe it's a bad idea for bad people to have WMDs, especially nuclear weapons." took all of 30 seconds, and they needed 2 weeks to figure out just an agenda and a month to have a conference to determine some stupid committees? Where's the Diplomad when you need him to slam the UN and their insatiable coordinating the head coordinator while coordinating which five star hotel to stay at and whether to have lobster, crab, steak, or all three for lunch like they did during tsunami relief? And people still don't think Bolton is a good idea for our UN ambassodor after ridiculous idiocy like this? Give the UN another year or two and maybe they'll actually have a policy that coordinates with the countries involved, but that also lines Annan and his family's pockets at the same time.
"I am concerned like everybody else that it took two weeks to agree on an agenda," Annan told reporters. "The issues are known, and I hope they'll be able to accelerate their work and make some progress."
Brazilian diplomat Sergio de Queiroz Duarte, the conference president, said Thursday there was still time to reach an agreement that would reinforce the treaty "in all its aspects" if delegates help. He noted that at the last NPT review conference in 2000 an agreement wasn't reached until the final hours.
Duarte said he wouldn't have taken the presidency "if I were not optimistic" that results could be achieved that "push disarmament forward."
But others are pessimistic, pointing to the lengthy dispute over the agenda language as a reflection of the deep divisions on the treaty itself. |
They're arguing over language on a frigging agenda!! UN-believable! If the UN were a business (instead of a leech sucking money out of the US Treasury) they'd have gone bankrupt ages ago.
[...]Iran announced Sunday it would resume some conversion activities, but after Europe increased pressure on Tehran to maintain its suspension, the head of the country's nuclear program said Thursday it may postpone uranium reprocessing.
"I think the Europeans are trying very hard to keep the talks going and I don't think it's completely out of question yet," Annan said, "and I hope they will succeed to keep them at the table to continue their discussions."
As for North Korea, the secretary-general called for renewed efforts to resume six-party talks on its nuclear program which have been stalled since last June. Japan said Friday it would consider five-party talks if Pyongyang continues its boycott of negotiations.
"I think all the parties engaged in the six-party talks should bring their influence to bear to get the parties back to the table," Annan said. "I hope it will be successful because that is the only game in town." |
Iran looks to be just a little bit of North Korean diplomtic history repeating. At what point does the US step in and say "Hell no, you can't have any nukes." Man those UN weenies really piss me off. |
