Lugar Goes to Floor to Extend START Mechanisms

Stories we're following today:

Lugar Introduces Bill to Assure Arms Control Inspections Continue Until New START Treaty Ratified - Senate Floor Statement of Senator Lugar [link]

• This bill provides authority that would allow the President of the United States to extend, on a reciprocal basis, privileges and immunities to Russian arms inspection teams that may come to the United States to carry out inspections permitted under the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty or START I.
• START I Treaty has been vitally important to arms control efforts up to the present day, because it contains a comprehensive verification regime that undergirds every existing U.S.-Russian treaty that deals with strategic arms control.

Lugar on START Verification - Arms Control Wonk [link]

• Dick Lugar, one of the old bulls of the Senate, has introduced a bill, S.2727, to extend, on a reciprocal basis, the inspections under START for another six months.
• The bill itself is good idea because the New START treaty isn’t going to be ratified by December 5, 2009… The bill puts the President in a position to cover the gap between the expiration of START on December 5 and the ratification of a new agreement sometime in the spring.
• The second thing about Lugar’s speech is that he articulated the concept of “effective verification” that asks, even if Moscow cheats, are we better off at the margin?

Pressing a Broad Agenda for Combating Nuclear Dangers: An Interview with Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Ellen Tauscher - Arms Control Today [link]

• In the wide-ranging interview, Tauscher elaborates on key issues on the international nuclear security agenda including U.S.-Russian talks on a new strategic arms reduction treaty (START), the administration's plans for the reconsideration of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), the administration's Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), as well as the upcoming Nuclear Security Summit in April and the Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference in May.
• Tauscher emphasized the need for U.S. leadership on efforts such as the CTBT and a new START treaty, but also said that, as participants in the global nonproliferation regime, all countries have "responsibilities and things that they have to invest in, pay attention to."

Russian FM Optimistic on Arms Control Treaty Deal - Associated Press 

• Andrei Nesterenko said Friday that Moscow hopes the next round of U.S.-Russian arms control talks produce a deal before the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty expires on Dec. 5.
• Nesterenko told a briefing that last week's visit to Moscow by U.S. National Security Adviser James Jones helped bring the countries' positions closer.

Iran Holding Up Nuclear Deal with Demand for Reactor Fuel, Diplomat Says - Washington Post [link]

• Iran is demanding full delivery of reactor fuel before it gives up its stash of low-enriched uranium and has balked at further efforts to hold international talks on its nuclear program, according to a senior European diplomat.
• The diplomat said he thought the breakdown in the discussions has little to do with the nuclear issue and instead is the result of a tense struggle within the Iranian political system. The issue has "paralyzed the decision-making process in Tehran," he said. "It is a battle over who is tougher or who is more anti-American, and we are in a situation so ridiculous that [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad is in the middle."
• "We keep using the Russians to pass tough messages every day, saying: 'This is a good deal. Take it,' " he said.

Report: Iran Tested Advanced Nuclear Warhead Design - The Guardian [link]

• The UN's nuclear watchdog has asked Iran to explain evidence suggesting that Iranian scientists have experimented with an advanced nuclear warhead design, the Guardian has learned.
• Documentation referring to experiments testing a two-point detonation design are part of the evidence of nuclear weaponization gathered by the IAEA and presented to Iran for its response.
• Wonk note: For more information, read the Arms Control Association's useful guide - "Iran's Outstanding Nuclear Issues at a Glance".