Obama, Rouhani at UN Cite Opportunity for Agreement

On the radar: “Don’t let opportunity pass”; “Historic opportunity”; Rehashed Parchin accusations; the Other Mid-East point of nuclear contention; PM Cameron meets Rouhani; and the Problems with building new U.S. nuclear weapons.

September 25, 2014 | Edited by Will Saetren

Obama at UN - “America is pursuing a diplomatic resolution to the Iranian nuclear issue, as part of our commitment to stop the spread of nuclear weapons and pursue the peace and security of a world without them. And this can only take place if Iran seizes this historic opportunity. My message to Iran’s leaders and people has been simple and consistent: Do not let this opportunity pass. We can reach a solution that meets your energy needs while assuring the world that your program is peaceful,” said President Obama in his speech yesterday at the UN General Assembly. http://1.usa.gov/1ra8Bjq

Rouhani at UN - “We are of the view that the nuclear issue could only be resolved through negotiation, and those who may think of any other solution are committing a grave mistake,” said Hassan Rouhani in his speech today at the U.N. General Assembly. “Any delay in arriving at a final agreement only raises the costs; not only at our expense but also at the expense of the economy and trade of the other parties as well as the development and security prospects of our region. No one should doubt that compromise and agreement on this issue is in the best interest of everyone especially that of the nations of the region.”

--“As you know, during the ongoing nuclear negotiations in this year, the Iranian government took some initiatives that created new favorable conditions, which resulted, at that phase, in the Geneva Joint Plan of Action. We are determined to continue our confidence building approach and our transparency in this process… Arriving at a final comprehensive nuclear agreement with Iran will be a historic opportunity for the West... This agreement can carry a global message of peace and security, indicating that the way to attain conflict resolution is through negotiation and respect not through conflict and sanction.” Read the full transcript here. http://bit.ly/1xnDlzV

Change of tone - “Iranian President Praises Cooperation in New York,” by David Sanger and Rick Gladstone of the New York Times. http://nyti.ms/1ustKGT

Making history - “Leaders from Britain and Iran met Wednesday for the first time in 35 years, a potential breakthrough conversation that occurs at a time when Tehran is trying to shed Western-led sanctions over its nuclear program and Western nations are trying to garner international support for their campaign against ISIS,” report Greg Botelho and Dana Ford for CNN. Read the full story here. http://cnn.it/1rm07mM

New accusation - “Israel said on Wednesday that Iran has used its Parchin military base as the site for secret tests of technology that could be used only for detonating a nuclear weapon,” reports Reuters. “A statement from Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz, issued a day before Iranian President Hassan Rouhani - the architect of Tehran's nuclear diplomacy - was to address the U.N. General Assembly, said the implosion tests at Parchin involved neutron sources that would include nuclear material. http://reut.rs/1usrS0R

Old news - Israel’s above accusation isn’t anything new. From November 6, 2011: “An imminent report by United Nations weapons inspectors includes the strongest evidence yet that Iran has worked in recent years on a kind of sophisticated explosives technology that is primarily used to trigger a nuclear weapon... One of the crucial pieces of intelligence information that officials say the I.A.E.A. is weighing for the report concerns activity at a military base called Parchin,” wrote David Sanger and William Broad in The New York Times. http://nyti.ms/1n0rVyC

Speaking of accusations - “They may be joining forces in a new Middle East conflict, but Arab nations are defying the United States at a major meeting of the U.N. nuclear watchdog by trying to crank up pressure on Israel over its assumed atomic arsenal,” reports Fredrik Dahl of Reuters. http://reut.rs/1peJYwc

Letters - “Under the Obama administration’s risky and unnecessary strategy to maintain the United States’ nuclear arsenal, it is planning to develop and deploy what are essentially new nuclear weapons, using components from various warheads in combinations that have never been tested in an underground explosion,” writes Stephen Young of the Union of Concerned Scientists to The New York Times. Young writes that the administration's approach raises concerns about the reliability of the stockpile and runs counter to the President’s pledge to not deploy new nuclear weapons. Full letter to the editor here. http://nyti.ms/1uswtA4

Quick Hits:

--”Time for the national labs to go local” by Matthew Stepp and Mark Muro in The hill. http://bit.ly/1peCh9v

--“Demolition of Building 9744 completed at Y-12” in Oak Ridge Today. http://bit.ly/1DyUYy8

Events:

--"The Regional Implications of a deal with Iran,” with Ken Pollack, Farideh Farhi, John Garver, Amb. Chas Freeman, and Haleh Esfandiari. Sept. 29, 2:30pm at the Washington Marriott. Part of the NIAC Leadership Conference. Details here. http://bit.ly/XvQffI

--Eric Schlosser discusses his book, Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety, at the World Affairs Council of Northern California. Sept. 29 in San Francisco. Details here. http://bit.ly/1qrePcW

--"Nuclear Stability in South Asia," Oct. 1, Noon-2:00pm, at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Suite 1225, 1400 K St. NW, Washington. Featuring Sumit Ganguly, Indiana University; Gaurav Kampani, University of Tulsa; David Karl, Asia Strategy Initiative; Col. David Smith, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; Stephen Schwartz, Monterey Institute of International Studies. Sponsored by the Center on American and Global Security at Indiana University Bloomington. RSVP Here. http://bit.ly/1odeg2m

-- “The UK Strategic Nuclear Deterrent and the Chevaline Program: An Overview,” Oct. 3, 12:00pm - 2:00pm hosted by the Nuclear Proliferation International History Project at the Woodrow Wilson Center. RSVP here. http://bit.ly/1qyEuvE

--Public meeting for the Commission to Review the Effectiveness of the National Energy Laboratories. Oct. 6, 10:00am-3:30pm in Alexandria, VA. Details here. http://1.usa.gov/1udhOIV

--“Preventing Proliferation and Advancing Nuclear Disarmament” Annual Meeting of the Arms Control Association. Oct. 20, 9:30am-2:30pm at the Carnegie Endowment. RSVP here. http://bit.ly/1uGHZnS