Warning of a "dark situation" and tension spreading in the world, former chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix yesterday called for renewed international effort to rid the world of nuclear weapons.

With Iran and North Korea developing nuclear weapons, Blix said, a military approach in either situation would be "catastrophic."

"As we see in the case of North Korea and Iran, the military means are very limited," Blix said. "I'm not a pacifist, but we have to believe in a new world of interdependence."

Meanwhile, he said, another real threat was the risk of nuclear materials' falling into the hands of terrorists.

Blix, who was in Stockholm, made his observations on "Achieving a Nuclear Weapons-Free World" via video-conferencing presented at Chestnut Hill College in an event sponsored by the Philadelphia-based Project for Nuclear Awareness  (and many others- PNA.ed.).

Blix said it was critical for the United States and Russia - which together control 95 percent of the world's nuclear stockpile - to resume efforts to eliminate weapons and control the proliferation of fissile materials for making weapons.

"We are told that the major threat comes from rogue states and from terrorists, but that is what we hear from nuclear-weapons states," Blix said. "They forget they are the ones that actually sit on the nuclear weapons."

Blix called for:

A ratification by the U.S. Senate of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty it rejected in 1996.

A halt by all countries of the production of highly enriched uranium and plutonium. "We should turn off the tap for these materials," Blix said.

A reduction in the number of nuclear weapons. At the height of the Cold War, there were 55,000 weapons; today there are about half as many. "It should go down further," Blix said.

A withdrawal of nuclear weapons from Europe that are in the forward position. "It's a relic of the Cold War," Blix said.

Further negotiations - and not military action - with Iran.

"Iranians want to hear that their security will not be threatened and that they will be accepted as a diplomatic partner," Blix said. "Military pressure will be counterproductive. When the United States sends two aircraft carriers to the Persian Gulf, that sends a message to Iran that maybe they need nuclear weapons."

Blix said that given the number of new leaders in the world, including a soon-to-be-decided U.S. president, he was "hopeful" that nuclear disarmament would gain more attention.

"This is the issue that could wipe us out," said Craig Eisendrath, a Temple University professor and chairman of the Project for Nuclear Awareness. Formed in 2006, the national organization works to educate the public and lawmakers on the dangers of nuclear weapons. Yesterday's videoconference linked Blix in Sweden to student audiences in Philadelphia, Mexico and British Columbia.

As the top U.N. weapons investigator from 2000 to 2003, Blix concluded that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction - contradicting the Bush administration. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell conceded Sunday on Meet the Press that if weapons of mass destruction had been removed from the equation, there would have been no invasion of Iraq.

Former U.S. Ambassador Thomas Graham Jr. also addressed the conference from Philadelphia. A former arms-control negotiator, Graham said unless action was taken to abolish nuclear weapons, the world would enter a new nuclear era.

He said a principal task was keeping nuclear weapons out of the hands of terrorists.

Graham said the next U.S. president must pay particular attention to Pakistan.

"Preserving Pakistan has to be very, very high on the list," Graham said.

"Pakistan has a significant number of nuclear weapons that really work, and they also have significant fissile material," Graham said. If Pakistan's government fell into the hands of sympathizers of al-Qaeda, "the results could be catastrophic because those 40 weapons could be turned over to a terrorist organization."    [END of Inquirer story]
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PNA sponsored the forum together with Chestnut Hill College, Global Education Motivators, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Students for a Nuclear Weapons Free World, UN Association of Greater Philadelphia, and World Federation of UNA's.  This International Video Conference is the first of a series.  Call PNA for info on future conferences, at 215-546-3030.