Critically, the second phase would depend on universal acceptance of a comprehensive verification and enforcement system accompanied by tighter controls on fissile materials produced by civil-nuclear programmes.

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And, while we do that, we will also continue our efforts to negotiate a ban on the production of fissile materials that can be used in nuclear weapons.

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Iran has no current means of weaponizing its fissile materials.

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Indeed, the description of this legislation by its advocates as a "fissile materials cutoff, " seems closer to the truth than do their assurances that the bill will not imperil related SNM activities.

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CTBT, a readiness to halt the production of fissile materials for bomb-making, restraint in the numbers of warheads and missiles India will deploy, tightened export controls on sensitive technology, and improved relations between India and Pakistan.

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Then the Bush administration said it wouldn't accept any verification procedures in any fissile-materials treaty.

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Then, last week, the administration jumped on an Algerian proposal to accompany fissile-materials negotiations with informal discussions on space and disarmament.

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Multicountry negotiations on a fissile-materials ban stalled more than a decade ago.

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First, under the Clinton administration, some countries demanded that fissile-materials negotiations include formal talks on nuclear disarmament and a ban on weapons in space.

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