United Arab Emirates and US sign nuclear cooperation pact

The United Arab Emirates took a major step today towards becoming the first Arab country to acquire a nuclear capability, a move that could prompt other states to seek to join the club and fundamentally alter the balance of the power in the region. The Gulf state says it is seeking a nuclear programme for the generation of energy, not to produce an atomic weapon. But other Arab countries, if they took build reactors, might be more likely to make the switch from civilian to military nuclear use. The UAE embassy in Washington confirmed today the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, was scheduled later in the day to sign a nuclear cooperation pact with her UAE counterpart, Sheikh Abdallah Bin Zayid Al Nahyan, at a ceremony at the state department. The pact had been repeatedly delayed because of protests by members of Congress that this could be dangerous, accelerating nuclear proliferation and adding to the volatility in the region. It will be one of the last acts of the Bush administration, in defiance of concerns raised by Congress. Arab countries having reactors within the next decade would mean stockpiles of nuclear material accumulating in the region. One estimate is there would be enough to build between 1,000 and 2,000 nuclear bombs. Israel is the only state in the Middle East with a nuclear weapons capability, though it publicly refuses to confirm this. Iran is suspected by the US, Britain and other countries of also seeking a nuclear weapons capability, though it claims it is only interested in developing nuclear power to meet its energy needs. The deal will go to Barack Obama to sign off on. His team has not yet expressed a view on it. Republican members of Congress raised worries that nuclear technology could be smuggled from the UAE across the Gulf to Iran. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the senior Republican on the House foreign affairs committee, introduced legislation designed to delay the pact. But Sean McCormack, the state department spokesman, argued that the pact will help counter proliferation. The agreement only came after the UAE agreed to stringent conditions, including signing a protocol that will allow intrusive inspections by the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency. The UAE is hoping to have the reactor working by 2017. Companies from Britain and France, as well as the US, are set to compete for the contract. The UAE has agreed to import its nuclear fuel and not build a uranium enrichment plant that would make it possible to switch from civilian to military use. Iran, unlike the UAE, is developing a uranium enrichment programme, and could have a nuclear weapons capability within a few years. Many Arab countries, while claiming their interest in acquiring nuclear plants is for civilian purposes, are alarmed at the prospect of Iran, a traditional enemy, acquiring a nuclear weapon. Egypt, Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries are expected to join the race for a nuclear capability. Egypt, unlike the UAE, is so far refusing to sign up for the kind of intrusive inspections that the UAE has. David Albright, an arms-control specialist at the Washington-based International Science and International Security, has been among those sceptical of signing a deal with the UAE and described the UAE as "a nuclear smugglers' hub". In November, Albright co-authored a report warning that the Middle East is in danger of accumulating large stocks of nuclear material over the next decade that could be used to produce over 1,700 nuclear bombs.