Building on Iran deal to stem nuclear proliferation
Nonproliferation experts hope that an Iran agreement won’t encourage other countries to seek the nuclear fuel cycle and that a decade or more of restrictions on Iran’s program can be used to promote other measures to stem the spread of dangerous technologies and materials.
The framework for a long-term Iran nuclear deal, if it is completed by June 30, should prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon for at least a decade. But experts hope to use the next few years to lock in other improvements to the international nonproliferation system that will make it less likely that the world will face another crisis like it has with Iran and North Korea.
The last major improvement to the nonproliferation regime was after the Iraq war in 1991, Sharon Squassoni, director of the proliferation prevention program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), told Al-Monitor.
That was when the international community came up with the idea of the Additional Protocol — an addition to a country’s safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that allows for inspections of sites suspected of concealing undeclared nuclear activity. The protocol, Squassoni said, went into effect in 1998; the IAEA also got new sampling techniques and tools to detect radioactive material.
Other improvements include upgrades in nuclear security and safety, better export controls and the Proliferation Security Initiative to interdict smuggling of nuclear-related materials.
