Iran probably has germ weapons, possibly
N.Korea-USMon. 20 Nov 2006
By Richard Waddington
GENEVA, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Iran probably has germ warfare weapons,
North Korea may have developed them and Syria could have carried
out research into such banned weaponry, the United States told an
arms control conference on Monday.
Addressing the opening session of the sixth review conference of
the Convention on Biological Weapons (BWC), U.S. delegation head
John C. Rood said those countries were of particular concern given
their "support for terrorism".
"We believe that Iran probably has an offensive biological weapons
programme in violation of the BWC," Rood said. "We also believe
North Korea has a biological weapons capability and may have
developed, produced and weaponised for use.
"Finally, we remain seriously concerned that Syria ... has
conducted research and development for an offensive BW programme,"
he said.
Both Iran, which Washington also accuses of seeking nuclear
weapons, and North Korea, which has them, are members of the
31-year-old BWC. Syria has signed, but not ratified the pact.
Iran firmly rejected the U.S. accusation, but there was no
immediate response from either Syria or North Korea.
"I categorically reject what the U.S. delegation has said about my
country," Iranian ambassador Alireza Moaiyeri told the conference.
"Their baseless allegations are contrary to the spirit of the
review conference."
The conference, held every five years, will review the working of
the 155-state treaty which prohibits the development, production
and stockpiling of biological and toxin weapons, and will seek to
agree a programme of future work.
Rood declined to detail his accusations against the three states.
He referred journalists to a 2005 report by the United States on
various countries' compliance with the BWC.
The United States has also accused other countries, including
Russia and China, of not fully abiding by the treaty.
GROWING THREAT
Opening the three-week conference, United Nations Secretary-General
Kofi Annan urged stronger efforts to protect the world against
biological weapons, which he said posed a growing threat due to
advances in science and technology.
Awareness of the dangers was heightened by the global concern with
terrorism and new highly infectious natural diseases such as bird
flu which had underlined the ability of viruses to kill, he
said.
But years of negotiation on a new protocol to strengthen the treaty
ended in failure in 2001 because the United States opposed measures
such as spot checks on laboratories.
Washington had long been sceptical about the chances of putting in
place an effective system of verification of compliance with the
treaty and said spot checks could just encourage industrial
espionage.
However, states agreed to work on improving cooperation in areas
such as disease surveillance, the strengthening of national
legislation against germ weapons and tightening codes of conduct
for scientists.
In the coming five-year period, Washington wants enforcement of
national laws to be addressed to ensure that non-state actors
seeking such weapons are caught and punished.