The Egyptian president on Monday announced plans to build several nuclear power plants -- the latest in a string of such ambitious proposals from moderate Arab countries. The US immediately welcomed the plan, drawing a sharp contrast to what it called nuclear "cheating" by Iran.
President Hosni Mubarak, in a speech broadcast live on national television, said the aim was to diversify Egypt's energy resources and preserve its oil and gas reserves for future generations. He pledged Egypt would work with the UN nuclear watchdog agency at all times, and would not seek a nuclear bomb.
But Mubarak also made clear there were strategic reasons for the program, calling secure sources of energy "an integral part of Egypt's national security system."
In Washington, State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack said the US would not object to the program as long as Egypt adhered to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) guidelines.
"The problem has arisen, specifically in the case of Iran, where you have a country that has made certain commitments, and in our view and the shared view of many ... [is] cheating on those obligations," he said.
"For those states who want to pursue peaceful nuclear energy ... that's not a problem for us," McCormack said. "Those are countries that we can work with."
The US accuses Iran of using the cover of a peaceful nuclear program to secretly work toward building a bomb, an allegation Iran denies. Iran asserts it has a right to peaceful nuclear power and needs it to meet its economy's voracious energy needs.
But Iran's program has prompted a slew of Middle East countries to announce plans of their own -- in part simply to blunt Iran's rising regional influence.
"A lot of this is political and strategic," said Jon Wolfsthal, a nonproliferation expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
Egypt is highly sensitive to the fact that Iran hopes to open its Bushehr nuclear plant next year, said Mohamed Abdel-Salam, director of the regional security program at al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo.
"[Iran's] regional role as well as Iran's political use of the nuclear issue have added to Egypt's sensitivity," he said.
Other Arab countries' recent nuclear announcements "added extra pressure on Egypt not to delay any more."
Jordan, Turkey and several Gulf countries have announced in recent months that they are interested in developing nuclear power programs, and Yemen's government last month signed a deal with a US company to build civilian nuclear plants over the next 10 years.
Algeria also signed a cooperation accord with the US on civil nuclear energy in June and Morocco announced a deal last week under which France will help develop nuclear reactors there.
Despite the declarations of peaceful intentions, there are worries the countries could be taking the first steps toward a dangerous proliferation in the volatile Middle East.
Such fears intensified when Israel launched a Sept. 6 airstrike against Syria, a country allied with Iran that the US accuses of supporting terrorism.
US officials have been quoted in news reports as saying the strike targeted a North Korean-style structure that could have been used for the start of a nuclear reactor.
Syria says it has no nuclear program and the building was an unused military facility.
Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, this weekend criticized Israel and the US for failing to provide the IAEA with any evidence backing up the claim of a Syrian nuclear program.
Following a policy it calls "nuclear ambiguity," Israel has never confirmed nor denied having a nuclear weapons program itself.
But Mordechai Vanunu, a former technician at an Israeli nuclear plant, spent 18 years in prison after going public with details of Israel's atomic program in 1986.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS