Q&A: Is There A 'Right' To Enrich Uranium? Iran Says Yes, U.S. No
By Fredrik Dahl
GENEVA (Reuters)
--CLIP
The United States says no country has that explicit right under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the 1970 global pact designed to prevent the spread of atomic bombs.
"Matters of legal theory aside, the right to enrichment has become a shorthand for the real central issue in the negotiations - whether Iran will be allowed to maintain a nuclear weapons option as part of a nuclear program under international safeguards," Gary Samore, until recently the top nuclear proliferation expert on U.S. President Barack Obama's national security staff, wrote in a Foreign Affairs article.
WHAT DOES THE NPT SAY?
Both Iran and the United States refer to Article Four of the NPT in backing up their arguments.
While recognizing every country's right to develop peaceful nuclear energy, it does not directly mention enrichment.
The NPT's opening paragraphs ban non-nuclear weapon states from developing such arms, but adds in Article Four:
"Nothing in this Treaty shall be interpreted as affecting the inalienable right of all the Parties to the Treaty to develop research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes without discrimination."
MORE...
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/thomson-reuters/131122/qa-there-right-enrich-uranium-iran-says-yes-us-no
