Political Quotes

“Moreover, as with any treaty, this paragraph must be read in light of the object and purpose of the convention. The purpose of the treaty, quite obviously, is to ban chemical weapons. And any nation which provides technology to a country of concern would find itself in violation of the overriding obligation of Article One of the treaty, which requires states "never under any circumstance * * * to assist, encourage, or induce, in any way, anyone to engage in any activity prohibited to a state party under this Convention." This is an overriding obligation. It governs everything you do under the treaty. Ronald Lehman, the head of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency during the Reagan Administration, stated during a recent Foreign Relations Committee hearing that: We made it very clear throughout the negotiations that all of this was subject to [A]rticle I, which is the fundamental obligation [under the Convention] not to assist. So we reiterated that again and again and again. But the most important, I think, telling factoid in support of the U.S. interpretation is the fact that after the Convention was done so many of the usual list of suspects were so unhappy that they did not get what they wanted in these provisions.…”