The Latest: Iraq [wants a nuclear reactor] - The Washington Post
▻https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/the-latest-uae-says-iran-is-main-obstacle-to-arab-peace/2017/09/22/798eead8-9ffb-11e7-b2a7-bc70b6f98089_story.html
Iraq’s foreign minister is asking nuclear countries for help building a nuclear reactor, saying the country has a right to use nuclear power peacefully as a party to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
Ibrahim al-Jaafari made the request in his speech Saturday to the U.N. General Assembly’s annual ministerial meeting.
Former Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein’s previous efforts to build a nuclear reactor were met with an Israeli bombing in 1981 and years of suspicion about his intentions.
The NPT, which Iraq ratified in 1969, sought to prevent the spread of atomic arms beyond the five original nuclear powers — the U.S., Russia, Britain, France and China.
Al-Jaafari said Saturday that based on this right under the NPT, Iraq calls for help from our “kindred, nuclear countries.”