Australia to sell uranium to UAE under new agreement..UAE goes on dissident-arresting spree
FOREIGN Minister Bob Carr has confirmed a framework agreement has been signed with the United Arab Emirates to permit sales of Australian uranium.
It is the latest of 22 nuclear safeguard agreements covering 39 countries, including the US, Russia, Korea, UK, Canada, Argentina and China.
It is the second in the Middle East after Egypt.
“We are very, very happy that the UAE has fulfilled all the conditions and requirements that we would seek of a partner,” Senator Carr told ABC Radio.
Although rich in oil, the UAE has opted for nuclear for domestic power generation and in July became the first country in more than two-and-a-half decades to begin building a maiden nuclear power plant.
Senator Carr said the agreement allowed a comprehensive range of safeguards to ensure Australian nuclear material was not used for anything but peaceful purposes.
“There is a very strong guarantee and that is that it’s in the interest of the UAE to stick to what they have committed themselves to do,” he said.
Supply of Australian uranium would cease if the UAE started to enrich it, or gave it to a third party, or announced it was going to use the uranium for a nuclear warfare capacity.
Senator Carr said Australia, as a uranium supplier, had an obligation to sell to countries that adhered to all the rules, delivered on all the safeguards and were committed to non-proliferation.
“If we don’t provide uranium to such countries, then we are not providing an incentive to play by the rules,” he said.
http://www.rt.com/news/uae-activists-arrests-draconian-response-654/
Nine antigovernment activists have been arrested in the United Arab Emirates in the last two days. Authorities claim the arrest were connected to an investigation into foreign-linked groups that threaten the state’s security.
International human rights groups and activists described the recent arrests as a “draconian response to the mildest calls for modest democratic reforms.”
Human Rights Watch urged the US and British governments to speak up about the situation in UAE.
“After all their fine words over the past year about standing up for democracy and human rights in the Arab world, the US and the UK have completely lost their voices when it comes to the UAE,” HRW’s Deputy Middle East Director Joe Stork said in a statement on Wednesday.
Amnesty International has called on UAE authorities to disclose the whereabouts of those arrested, expressing concerns about possible mistreatment of the detainees.
Over three dozen dissidents, most of them Islamists, have been detained in the UAE since April, according to activists. Those detained are believed to be linked to al-Islah, an Islamist group outlawed in the UAE.
Most of the arrests took place after July 15, when the UAE announced it was looking into a group with foreign links that was planning to orchestrate “crimes against the security of the state.”
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so what did you bargain for with UAE bob?
i mean, you hold the chips..we have what they want..so what did you ask them to do? nothing? no democratic reforms? no nothing?..well played idiot..
401
is really at plant? or will ‘they’ ” treat “A ustralia like J apan