Un proliferation talks create conflict.

Controversy over the nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea dominated the opening of a global disarmament conference this week, with the US and others telling both countries to give up suspected atomic arms programs.

However, Iran insisted Tuesday it would resume some nuclear activities that were suspended in an attempt to bolster international confidence, but said actual uranium enrichment would not resume as long as any hope remains in troubled talks between Iranian and European negotiators.

The US pressed the UN conference taking stock of the 1970 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to ensure Tehran and Pyongyang were denied peacefully nuclear energy benefits because they had violated the pact. Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, also urged Iran not to follow through on threats to resume nuclear enrichment activities that could be used to produce atomic weapons.

The monthlong review of the NPT, the pact for halting the spread of nuclear arms, seemed deadlocked from the start on Monday. The US wants to keep the focus on Iran’s and North Korea’s NPT violations, while other nations argue Moscow and Washington have done too little to reduce their own arsenals. The US and Russia have a combined arsenal of 28,000 of the world’s 30,000 nuclear arms.

35 years ago, the NPT established a bargain by which, over time, 183 states renounced nuclear weapons. In return, five declared nuclear states – the US, Russia, China, France and Britain – promised to disarm and allow the rest access to peaceful nuclear energy.

The US and other countries accuse Iran of a covert 18-year effort to develop nuclear arms under the guise of NPT membership. Tehran says the programs are aimed at producing domestic electric power. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said that Iran would resume some nuclear activities. What activities or when will be announced later.

North Korea pursued atomic arms while an NPT member but has since withdrawn from the pact and announced it has nuclear weapons. It apparently fired a short-range missile into the Sea of Japan on the eve of the conference, deepening tensions. Pyongyang’s nuclear programs pose a serious challenge to the international nuclear nonproliferation regime as well as a direct threat to the peace and stability of Northeast Asia – said Japanese Foreign Minister, who called on the North to return to six-country nuclear talks.

Louis Charbonneau

The Moscow Times.

Activity 6. Read the article and do the exercises presented after it. Conflict in Mideast.

For decades, Israelis have built communities on Arab land seized in the Six-Day War of 1967. Long the crux of Palestinian frustration, today these settlements are increasingly becoming the front line in the low-intensity war of attrition between Israelis and Palestinians.

In the ongoing violence, assailants bombed an armoured Israeli school bus in the Gaza Strip, killing two adults and injuring nine others, including at least four children. The bus was shuttling between Gaza settlements – fortified communities home to some 6,000 Israelis who live among more than a million Palestinians.

The attack was claimed by three pro-Palestinian groups. The Palestinian Authority denied responsibility but promised an investigation. Israel launched a two-hour missile attack on Palestinian targets in Gaza in retaliation. Then, on Nov. 22, an Israel ambush in Gaza killed four Palestinians, and a car bomb exploded near a bus in the Israeli town of Hadera, killing at least two people and injuring about 29.

The Nov. 20 attack on the school bus focuses new attention on Israel’s policy of support for the settlements. Because they are built on land seized by force, they are considered illegal under international law. The Gaza settlements are the tip of an iceberg.

Nothing seems to be working to end the conflict in the Middle East. With the continuing violence in Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank, Palestinians appear to have few options other than sullen capitulation or the continuation of fruitless conflict and their present unhappy, oppressed state. Few Arab or Muslim countries, despite their rhetoric, are prepared to go war with Israel. And the Palestinians are at hopeless disadvantage in the face of overwhelming Israeli power.

But what would happen if they turn to non-violence?

Imagine if you can, that Palestinians laid down their stones and rifles, and, possibly joined by other Muslims, marched peacefully and silently in a human wave toward Jerusalem – or sought, in similar fashion, to form human cordons around the Jewish settlements. What would the Israelis do?

The Israelis, who would see such a tactic as a threat to their very existence, may be less reluctant than the British or Americans to use force against an unarmed population.

They begin with their history as victims and their strong belief that the Arabs only understand force. In isolated instances in the past when Palestinians have tried passive resistance, such as the antitax revolt in Christian suburbs of Beit Sahour in 1989, Israeli action has been swift and punitive.

Passive non-violence may not be an easy option in the Mideast. But as long as escalating retaliation blocks negotiations, it is difficult today to see any other path that might shift the power balance in this tragic conflict.

(Based on the articles “Level of fighting in Mideast rises” and “Imagine a peaceful wave of humanity in Israel” by Cameron W. Barr, that were published in “The Christian Science Monitor” №11, 12 2000).

0. Provide English equivalents for the following words and word-combinations and compose sentences of your own:

• захваченная территория

• трение, конфликт

• противник

• решающий момент, момент истины

• ответственность за теракт взяли

• ракетный обстрел

• превосходящий в силе

• пассивное сопротивление

• карательный

• месть, возмездие.

0. Points for discussion:

1. Terrorist acts, conducted by Palestinians, are justified.

2. Only UN troops can solve the problem in Mideast.

3. Israel should keep on bombing Palestinian territory.

4. Conflict in Mideast can provoke global war between the Muslems and Christians.

5. Propose your solution to this problem.