Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty

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The Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty (also FISSBAN or FMCT) is a proposed international treaty to prohibit the further production of weapons-grade uranium and plutonium. It would not prevent the production of fuel-grade uranium and plutonium, nor of other components in nuclear warheads. It is currently being negotiated in the United Nations Conference on Disarmament. In a 27 September 1993 speech before the UN, President Clinton called for a multilateral convention banning the production of fissile materials for nuclear explosives or outside international safeguards. In December 1993 the UN General Assembly adopted resolution 48/75L calling for the negotiation of a "non-discriminatory, multilateral and international effectively verifiable treaty banning the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices." The Geneva based Conference on Disarmament (CD) on 23 March 1995 agreed to a mandate a committee to begin negotiations on the cutoff treaty. However, negotiations have been stalled for several years.

In 2004, the United States announced that they opposed the inclusion of a verification mechanism in the treaty on the grounds that compliance with the treaty could not be conclusively determined by a system of international verification. On the 4th of November, 2004, the First Committee of the General Assembly adopted Draft resolution A/C.1/59/L.34 with a vote of 147 to 1 with two abstentions. A later vote was similar with 179 in favor, 2 against, 2 abstentions, and 8 non voting countries. The United States was joined in opposition by Palau, with Great Britain and Israel abstaining. Iran supported the resolution. The United States supports the treaty but advocates an ad-hoc system of verification wherein states would monitor the compliance of other states through their own national intelligence mechanisms. ^[1]

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59th General Assembly Sessions, Click "A/59/459 Corr.1" dated 22 Nov. 2004 and entitled "General and complete disarmament - Report of the First Committee"
Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty, Nuclear Threat Initiative