Will Someone Please Tell Gareth?

In today's Murdoch fishwrapper: "The world was headed for another Hiroshima or worse because of the risk of miscalculation or accident, the head of Kevin Rudd's new Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament said yesterday. Gareth Evans, the commission's co-chair, said inadequate controls applied to at least 16,000 atomic warheads actively deployed around the world... he said the main obstacle to disarmament remained complacency by the US and Russia, which had lost interest since the end of the Cold War. Difficulties ahead included how to prevent nations developing nuclear weapons after India and Pakistan, claiming their own different needs, had joined Israel outside the international treaty arrangements*. Mr Evans said he supported the recent downgrading of North Korea's status as a danger to nuclear proliferation. But Mr Evans rated Iran's program for the development of nuclear weapons under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a high-risk category. 'Iran is a hell of a lot different', he said." (Risk of new Hiroshima: Evans, Brad Norington, The Australian, 21/10/08)

[*Hm, surely logic dictates that if Israel's choosing to remain "outside the international treaty arrangements" is leading the likes of India and Pakistan astray - which seems to be what Evans is on about here - then shouldn't the first priority of Rudd's shiny new Commission be to tackle the Israelis over this? Just a pigs-will-fly thought.]

Not in today's Murdoch fishwrapper: "In an interview today, UN nuclear watchdog chief Mohammed ElBaradei said that Iran would be lacking key components for the production of a nuclear weapon even if they chose to do so. According to ElBaradei 'they do not have even the nuclear material, the raw unenriched uranium to develop one nuclear weapon if they decide to do so'." (ElBaradei: Iran nowhere near acquiring nuclear weapons, antiwar.com, 20/10/08)