OPINION:
We will never forget the 2,983 men, women and children killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and United Airlines Flight 93 — or the Feb. 26, 1993, bombing of the World Trade Center.
We owe it to these innocent martyrs to ensure that this never happens again.
Unfortunately, there are rogue states and terrorist organizations that continue to view the U.S. and its allies and partners as the enemy.
In 1998, al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden declared that acquiring and using weapons of mass destruction was his Islamic duty and attempted to purchase or produce nuclear weapons.
On Sept. 6, 2007, Israeli F-15s entered Syrian airspace and bombed a nuclear reactor at Al Kibar, Syria. Seven months later, the U.S. confirmed that Al Kibar was a nuclear facility, despite Syria’s denial and efforts to clear the site, with the International Atomic Energy Agency confirming in 2011 that Al Kibar was a nuclear reactor.
Israel destroyed a graphite-moderated nuclear reactor, like North Korea’s nuclear reactor in Yongbyon. In April 2007, a foreign liaison partner briefed senior U.S. officials on their discovery of the nuclear reactor and North Korea’s assistance in constructing it. This was clearly a case of North Korea providing technical and material support to Syria to construct a nuclear reactor for one purpose: nuclear weapons. Fortunately, the reactor was bombed just before it was to go operational.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney, in his memoir, “In My Time,” states that on the morning of Oct. 9, 2006, after North Korea’s first nuclear test and when the nuclear blast was detected on Oct. 8, then-President George W. Bush went before the cameras in the Diplomatic Reception Room to condemn the test and issue a warning:
“The North Korean regime remains one of the world’s leading proliferators of missile technology, including transfers to Iran and Syria. The transfer of nuclear weapons or material by North Korea to states or non-state entities would be considered a grave threat to the U.S., and we would hold North Korea fully accountable for the consequences of such action.”
By proliferating nuclear technology and materials to Syria, a state sponsor of terrorism, North Korea had clearly crossed Mr. Bush’s red line after its first nuclear test in October 2006. Moreover, there were no consequences for this blatant nuclear proliferation.
Since the death last year of Ayman al-Zawahiri, who succeeded bin Laden, al Qaeda is reportedly recruiting new fighters and seeking to recover its external operations capability. Many of al-Zawahiri’s potential successors live in Iran and most likely view the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan as a positive development. Al Qaeda and its affiliates will continue to view the U.S. and its allies and partners as the enemy, and they — and others, such as the Islamic State — will continue to seek weapons of mass destruction.
The first nuclear security summit was held in Washington on April 12-13, 2010, with 57 national delegations (and 38 heads of state, including China’s) participating, with the goal of addressing the threat of nuclear terrorism by minimizing and securing nuclear materials and enhancing international cooperation to prevent the illicit acquisition of nuclear material by non-state terrorist groups.
Subsequent nuclear security summits were convened in Seoul, South Korea, in 2012, in The Hague, Netherlands, in 2014 and in Washington in 2016.
As Russia’s war in Ukraine continues, with Russia threatening to use tactical nuclear weapons and media reports of North Korea providing Russia with artillery and rockets in exchange for energy assistance and help with its nuclear and missile programs, now is the time for the U.S. to convene another nuclear security summit.
Indeed, this would be the time for all nuclear weapons states and non-nuclear weapons states with civilian nuclear energy capabilities to come together to provide assurances that nuclear weapons and fissile materials (for dirty bombs) will be protected, with assurances they would never be sold or provided to rogue states or non-state terrorist organizations.
This would also be a good time to communicate directly with North Korea that we will never forget what it did with Syria: provide a state supporter of terrorism with a nuclear reactor to produce nuclear weapons. North Korea’s leaders should be reminded that we monitor their actions closely and there would be consequences if they sold or provided a nuclear weapon or fissile material to a rogue state or non-state terrorist organization.
So, as we pause to think about the innocent people who were killed on Sept. 11, 2001, and Feb. 26, 1993, let’s ensure that this will never happen again.
• Joseph DeTrani is the former director of the National Counterproliferation Center and the special envoy for Six-Party Talks with North Korea from 2003 to 2006. The views expressed here are the author’s and not those of any government agency or department.
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