Amid fears of an atomic arms race in the Middle East, a senior United Arab Emirates (UAE) official has told a top US lawmaker that it too might seek the right to enrich uranium that Iran has asserted under the recently signed nuclear deal.
The landmark Iran accord to curb its nuclear weapons in exchange for economic sanctions relief allows Tehran to enrich uranium. In barely noticed testimony last month, US House of Representatives’ Committee on Foreign Affairs Chairman Ed Royce said that UAE Ambassador to the US Yousef al-Otaiba had informed him in a telephone call that the country no longer felt bound by its previous nuclear agreement with the US.
“He told me: ‘Your worst enemy has achieved this right to enrich. It’s a right to enrich now that your friends are going to want, too, and we won’t be the only country,’” Royce said in a phone interview with reporters this week, elaborating on his testimony.
In a 2009 pact with the UAE, the US agreed to share materials, technology and equipment for producing nuclear energy. In the accord — known as a 123 Agreement — the UAE made a bold pledge not to enrich uranium or reprocess spent fuel to extract plutonium, two pathways to an atomic weapon.
Asked to respond, the UAE embassy in Washington sent a one-sentence e-mail that said: The “government has not formally changed its views or perspective on the 123 Agreement or commitments.”
The UAE has said in the past that it welcomes the nuclear deal reached with Iran.
NON-BINDING
However, Royce said al-Otaiba told him that the UAE “no longer felt bound” by those provisions of the agreement.
While al-Otaiba did not explicitly state that his country was walking away from them, Royce said: “I took that to mean that they had the right to do that and that it was under consideration.”
The UAE Department of State declined requests for comment.
Royce and other opponents of the Iran nuclear deal have repeatedly warned that the accord is likely to unleash a cascade of proliferation in the unstable Middle East or set off an arms race in a hotbed for terrorists. Proponents say it could make the region safer by preventing Tehran from having the means to produce bomb material for more than a decade or longer.
At a House subcommittee hearing on Sept. 10, US Representative Michael Turner quizzed National Nuclear Security Administration Administrator Frank Klotz about whether the UAE had contacted the US about wanting to forgo the part of the 123 Agreement that restricts it from enriching uranium.
Klotz said he had no knowledge of it.
A week earlier, US House Committee on Armed Services Chairman Mac Thornberry and US House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes pressed US President Barack Obama’s administration for details on whether any nation had asked to renegotiate or alter obligations in 123 Agreements signed with the US after the Iran deal.
In a Sept. 3 letter to US Secretary of State John Kerry, US Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz and US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, the two Republican lawmakers wrote: “The committees require the administration to provide details regarding whether any state party to a 123 Agreement with the United States has notified the administration that it intends to renegotiate or otherwise alter its obligations under such an agreement due to the Iran nuclear deal.”
“Similarly, the committees require the administration to provide any other information it may have concerning the intentions of allies with respect to their civil nuclear capabilities,” the letter said.
The US has signed similar 123 Agreements with about 20 countries. The name comes from Section 123 of the US Atomic Energy Act, which requires such accords when the US is transferring significant amounts of nuclear material, equipment or components to other nations for peaceful energy production. The goal is to prevent further proliferation of material that also can be used to build nuclear weapons.
‘GOLD STANDARD’
The UAE’s pledge not to enrich has been dubbed the “gold standard” in 123 Agreements. Other nations have resisted making legal commitments that would forever prevent them from being able to enrich.
“The UAE, which has a strong commitment to nonproliferation and global nuclear disarmament, is a notable exception,” said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the independent Arms Control Association, which supported the Iran deal.
“If the UAE were to seek to back out of its commitment not to pursue enrichment and reprocessing, it would be symbolic setback to the longstanding goal of preventing the spread of enrichment and reprocessing technologies — which can be used for civilian or military purposes,” he said.
However, even if the UAE backed away from its pledge not to enrich, Kimball said it does not mean it has aspirations of building a nuclear weapon.
The issue still rankles US Senator Bob Menendez, who opposed the Iran nuclear deal.
In a lengthy speech to announce his opposition in August, Menendez said: “Imagine how a country like the United Arab Emirates — sitting just miles away from Iran across the Strait of Hormuz — feels after they sign a civilian nuclear agreement with the US ... to not enrich or reprocess uranium?”
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