Democrat pushes for
By Foster Klug
Associated Press
August 6, 2008
WASHINGTON (AP) - The
Bush administration risks the collapse of a U.S.-Indian civil nuclear deal if
it fails to push an international nuclear group to accept conditions that would
punish
The accord would
reverse three decades of
Concerns about the
deal were raised by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman,
D-Calif., in a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that was made
public Wednesday. Berman supports nuclear cooperation with
Last week, the
measure cleared a key hurdle when the International Atomic Energy Agency
approved a safeguards agreement that would allow U.N. monitors access to 14
existing or planned Indian nuclear reactors by 2014.
The Nuclear Suppliers
Group of countries that export nuclear material must still approve an exemption
to its rules for
The NSG could take up
the deal in late August. But Congress is now on a monthlong
break, and it returns for only a few weeks of work in September before it is scheduled
to break for the rest of the year to campaign for November elections that will
determine the next president and the political future of many current
lawmakers.
Berman wrote Rice
that he found it "incomprehensible that the administration apparently
intends to seek or accept an exemption from the Nuclear Suppliers Group
guidelines for
"Such an
exemption," Berman said, "would be inconsistent with
Berman wants Bush to
reject any NSG proposal that does not:
--Immediately stop
NSG member countries from conducting nuclear trade if
--Prohibit the
transfer of enrichment and reprocessing technology to
--Include a stipulation
that prevents countries from letting
Failure to secure
approval under Bush would leave the accord to an uncertain fate. Both leading
candidates for president, Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain,
have indicated support for the deal. But it is not clear that either would
consider it a priority as president.
Supporters say
nuclear cooperation with