NEWS: UN Says Egypt has Nuclear Material

The United Nations' atomic watchdog says it has evidence of secret nuclear experiments in Egypt. The group says these experiments can be used in weapons programs. The Egyptians apparently tried to produce various components of uranium without notifying the International Atomic Energy Agency, as they are bound to do under the Nuclear Noproliferation Treaty



While this might amount to nothing, it might also be yet another case of a country ignoring everything that the UN is supposed to stand for.

Personally, I see this as yet another reason to overhaul and revamp the UN.

[edit on 4-1-2005 by Banshee]

Maybe the UN is on an asskissing campaign to please Bush to save its own injured butt?

Yup, great, another country to invade. Add that to the list which already includes Iran and North Korea. Most countries want to go "nuclear". This brings about fear. With fear comes special deals and great negotiating leverage.

Dammit!!! We don't need this... Not now... I suppose if they and Iran where closely watched and monitored they could be allowed to keep the weapons for theater equality. Will these guys cooperate?

[edit on 4-1-2005 by ChrisRT]

Dun think being allowed to keep nukes for theater equality will happen. The Israelis will be anhiliated. No "Christian" country will allow that to happen. So, back to the cat and mouse game, with threats, candies and goodies. Gonna be a long show...

Originally posted by dixon Most countries want to go "nuclear". This brings about fear. With fear comes special deals and great negotiating leverage.

we also get drawn to the dark side, don't we yoda?

why wouldn't a country want to go "nuclear?" with nukes you get attention. I'm sure some of these leaders think that attention translates into respect. No different than the gang member thinking his glock is going to get him respect. It doesn't. It makes people more aware of you and perhaps worry that you might use said gun. It can, and often will lead to a bigger bully using his might to put you in your place.

a cap in the ass for North Korea, Iran and anyone else that thinks they belong in the our playground.

It also means embargos and sanctions as well...though as we've seen with Iraq, if you have oil, we can get around that... I'm still waiting for the same announcement, but towards the Saudis.....sometime this year. With Pakistan having nukes, it's only a matter of time before other ME countries have them.

Why shouldnt Egypt be allowed nuclear weapons? The US condones Israel's nuclear capability which hamstrings Arab nations. A bit of parity wouldnt go amiss in the Middle East.

A Mid-East 'superpower' could be more beneficial than negative as Egypt recognises Israels right to exist and could regain its dominance and sway in the Middle East. Which could bring about long needed change in the region

The Middle East needs a country to follow and look up to so to speak. Egypt would be my choice. West leaning, large Christian community, Secular government.

Originally posted by subz
Why shouldnt Egypt be allowed nuclear weapons? The US condones Israel's nuclear capability which hamstrings Arab nations. A bit of parity wouldnt go amiss in the Middle East.

Simple letter of the Law really. Egypt signed the Nonpoliferation Treaty, which basically means that any usage of uranium, peaceful or otherwise, must be presented to the IAEA for them to assess and usage for military purposes is forbidden unless you already posses nuclear weapons or reactors at the time of signing. If the uranium is for peaceful purposes, then the IAEA usually lets you get on and develop reactors and infrastructure for power generation.

Israel did not sign this treaty, and is thus not bound by it. They can produce weapons all they want and they are not beholden to International Law. Israel also havent admitted or denied possessing nuclear weapons, their current status is ambiguous, despite massive amounts of evidence that they posses nuclear weapons.

Iran are. They also followed the treaty and informed the IAEA each time they set out to produce a nuclear reactor. In the light of the law, they have actually stuck to the letter of it, and there has been NO evidence thus far of any weaponisation, including multiple visits by the IAEA to plants (and contrary to popular belief, its incredibly hard to hide the weaponisation process when its in a production state - and when it isnt, its useless). The only thing surrounding the current issue with Iran is claims by certain other countries, who havent actually released any evidence to support their claims.

Originally posted by dixon
Yup, great, another country to invade.

no, egypt is basically an ally, we wont invade them, if you noticed their tone it sounds like they just want egypt to inform others of their activity and nothing more.

Tis a shame. I was looking forward to see U.S. forces secure the sphinx and turn it into a military compound.

Egypt government is kind of Musharraf like ally, but at the same time the former Egypt Islamic Jihad led by Al-Zawahiri had contributed much to Al-Qaeda (they merged in 1998) in both ideologic and logistic departments. there is a not to be neglected undercurrent of fundamentalists in the country, now imagine they manage to steal nuclear components from their government and smuggle a crude device using tunnels to gaza strip or beyond.

Wonder what patriot missile would stop that?



[edit on 4-1-2005 by Countermeasures]

Originally posted by RedPhoenixDelta
Tis a shame. I was looking forward to see U.S. forces secure the sphinx and turn it into a military compound.

I dunno...when I see the sphinx it reminds me of McDonalds for some reason.

This tells me that their intentions aren't all energy-related:

Although Egypt signed the Nonproliferation Treaty, it has become in recent years one of the treaty's most vocal critics, mainly because of concerns about Israel's undeclared nuclear arsenal and more recent fears about Iran's nuclear agenda.

I tell you what, somebody out there has done a great job to ensure that all middle east countries are able to get nuclear access, I wonder who and why and for what price.

Looking now at all the countries that should not had the access to the ones that have it already, it seems very clear that nobody, sanctions and embargoes are going to stop them, specially the ones with the oil reserves.

Very soon Venezuela will have them too if they already don't, and for mexico well they depend on US to much to do anything like that. Right?