SAY IT WITH BUNKER BUSTERS:

U.S. Lambastes Iran, N. Korea at U.N. Meeting: Conflict over the right to technology puts a conference to review the 1970 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in jeopardy. (Maggie Farley, May 3, 2005, LA Times)

At a key U.N. disarmament conference Monday, the U.S. lashed out at Iran and North Korea for their purported pursuit of atomic weapons and demanded that Iran dismantle its uranium enrichment facilities.

But Iran said that it had an "inalienable right" to develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes and that it might restart its once-secret nuclear energy program. The entrenched conflicts may set the conference up for failure, diplomats said.

At the opening of a monthlong review of the 1970 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, U.S. negotiator Stephen Rademaker said the world must make sure that countries such as North Korea and Iran cannot exploit loopholes in the treaty to divert civilian energy programs into illegal weapons facilities.

Good thing John Bolton hasn't been confirmed or they'd be feeling lambasteder.

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 3, 2005 9:58 AM