Every US president is obliged to review its nuclear policy at least once during his occupation of office. The current incumbent, President Obama, presented his 2,200 page policy changes titled Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) on April 6, 2010. The salient features of his review comprise: top priority to fighting terrorism and proliferation vis--vis responding to a nuclear attack; promising not to use atomic weapons against non-nuclear states but issuing a stern warning for countries that ignore global non-proliferation rules; reducing the role of nuclear weapons in the US security strategy; expanding conventional capabilities, relying on existing stockpiles of nuclear weapons for deterrence against nuclear powers like Russia and China; and focusing on preventing terrorists and rogue states from acquiring such weapons. Prima facie these are sound suggestions but the review must be examined in light of other contemporary developments. On April 8, the US president and his Russian counterpart, Medvedev, signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) at Prague. Under the Treaty, each side within seven years would be barred from deploying more than 1,550 strategic warheads or 700 launchers, without the compulsion of eliminating the surplus weapons. Result-antly, even with the planned reductions there will be enough firepower on each side to devastate the world many times over. Amidst the backslapping and self-praise, the subject of Irans nuclear programme remained prominent. Medvedev obliquely spelt out Russias support for UN sanctions on Iran by stating that Tehrans intransigence cannot be ignored. A third development is the two-day Nuclear Security Summit (NSS) with 47 heads of state and government in Washington on April 12 and 13. The focus of the unprecedented meeting was on: how to safeguard nuclear materials from terrorists. Pakistan was led by the head of its Nuclear Command Authority, PM Yousuf Raza Gilani. Coming back to the NPR, which promises not to use atomic weapons against non-nuclear states but issues a stern warning for countries that ignore global non-proliferation rules, Defence Secretary Gates has noted that there is no such commitment regarding Iran and North Korea. Tehran has reacted sharply to the US targeting the duo and threatening the use of nuclear weapons against them. Leading the charge, President Ahm-adinejad has accused Obama of being more war-mongering than Bush. In a televised speech, the Iranian president derided Obama, depicting him as an ine-ffective leader influenced by Israel to target Iran more aggressively. Iranian Ambassador to Islamabad Mashallah Shakeri also commented on Obamas NPR saying: Time will tell who is on the right pathbut Iran is not afraid of any threats. The international conference on nuclear disarmament will be held at Tehran on April 17 and 18, in which representatives of over 60 countries have already accepted Irans invitation to attend it. Iran believes that all countries should make efforts to prevent the use of nuclear weapons; the world needs to move toward alternative clean sources of energy. The theme of Tehrans summit is Nuclear Energy for All, Nuclear Weapons for none, which should have been the theme of the NPR, as well as the revised START between US and Russia and the NSS. Irans Foreign Ministry has announced that high-ranking members of IAEA will be among 200 or so foreign dignitaries attending the two-day conference. The real focus, thus, would be on next months crucial Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference at the UN in New York, where the US is likely to bolster its efforts against Iran by going on the offensive, hoping for better results than at the 2005 NPT conference that was deadlocked over the division between the two opposing camps of non-proliferation and disarmament. According to US nuclear experts, the American intention at the NPT conference is to strengthen IAEA, the UNs nuclear watchdog, primarily by pushing for tougher rules on inspections and access to sensitive nuclear technologies and making it more difficult for NPT member states to exit the Treaty. On the eve of the NPR, START and NSS, in a bid to target Iran, the US media tried to build-up cases involving Pakistan and China, and the dead horse of Dr Khan was flogged yet again. Take, for example, April 3 Wall Street Journal story titled Iranian firm got parts to enrich uranium. According to the expos, IAEA and Western intelligence agencies are investigating how an Iranian firm obtained critical valves and vacuum gauges to enrich uranium. The probe was launched after IAEA received an email on January 14 alleging that illicit goods were being sent to Iran, through an intermediary representing a Chinese company based near Shanghai. The email said: Irans Javedan Mehr Toos obtained the valves in recent weeks from Vikas Kumar Talwar, an intermediary representing Zheijiang Ouhai Trade Corp of China, a subsidiary of the Wenzhou-based Jinzhou Group, the newspaper claimed. The nationality of the Indian origin Talwar has mysteriously not been specified. On the other hand, Indian PM Manmohan Singh met US President Obama on Sunday, conveying his countrys concerns over American military aid to Pakistan. Indian lobbies in the US are bending backwards to deny Pakistan its rightful place. The time barred proliferation stigma must be erased since raking old wounds leads nowhere. History depicts that every nuclear power has indulged in proliferation at some stage or the other. Pakistan has come a long way since the 1990s nuclear proliferation issue; it is high time that it takes a stand for having its status as a responsible nuclear state established and its credentials restored. The writer is a political and defence analyst.