Jack Reed: New Framework Needed on Nukes

US Senator Jack Reed says the US needs to establish a new framework to prevent countries such as Iran and Egypt from creating nuclear weapons, and to stop worsening destabilization in the Middle East.

Reed, who spoke during a taping this morning of WPRI-WNAC TV's Newsmakers (broadcast Sunday, at 5:30 am on Channel 12 and at 10 am on Fox 64), suggested that the US might make nuclear material available, so that Iran, for example, could pursue nuclear energy, and then take away the byproducts necessary for creating nuclear weapons. Such an effort, he said, could reduce the possibility of Iran gaining the bomb to close to zero.

The senator said the US is not doing enough to prevent a loose nuke from falling into terrorist hands, and that greater efforts should be focused in places like the former Soviet Union.

Reed believes it would be too tempting for Iran to not pursue a nuclear weapon based on its own nuclear energy program, and that the US must do everything it can to prevent it from gaining such a weapon. He says Egypt also wants to gain the bomb, and that the proliferation of these weapons will worsen instability in the Middle East.

Reed defended House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's trip to Syria, saying that it is in the interest of the US to talk with various countries in that region. The new Democratic Congress, he says, has offered "meaningful oversight" of the White House in its first 100 days. Reed also held out hope for compromise with the Bush administration on some issues.

The senator was more skeptical about the president's new approach in Iraq. He called it more of a tactical change than a strategic one, adding that it's the strategy that needs to be changed. While a precipitous pullout would not be wise, Reed said, the US military needs to get its missions right, switching to a focus of training Iraqi forces and attacking Al Qaeda. More emphasis should be placed, he said, on the tribal belt of Pakistan, where Al Qaeda's leadership is thought to be bunkered.

I'll have more on Reed's appearance a little later.