Google Groups no longer supports new Usenet posts or subscriptions. Historical content remains viewable.

Dismiss

@@ No wonder why the West is so mad at Iran @@

0 views

Skip to first unread message

Arash

unread,

Sep 5, 2005, 1:24:51 PM9/5/05

The Nation
August 31, 2005

Iran's Nuclear Ambitions

By insisting on its right to develop the full range of nuclear technology, Iran has
become a Third World hero. So it's no wonder why the West is so mad at Iran. The West
still keeps in mind how Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal just two years after Iran
Nationalized its oil. Iran has always been at the forefront of struggle against the
Western hegemony. Iran has always set the stage for other countries to follow its
example, and that's very alarming to the West. It is just a matter of a couple of
years before we see the entire MidEast to change, and Iran shall have the final say
in the Persian Gulf in specific. Well, it should not be a surprise to anyone with
brain; Iran is a very great nation with more than ten thousand years of history.

Dilip Hiro

Beneath the dispute between Iran and the European Union Troika (EU-3) on uranium
enrichment rests a far more fundamental issue: Do Third World countries have the
right to develop and use all nuclear technology, including enrichment, as authorized
by the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), or not?

Iran says, categorically, "Yes", and the 116-member Non-Aligned Movement, NAM agrees
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-Aligned_Movement).

The EU-3--consisting of Britain, France and Germany--does not deny the right. But it
wants Tehran to give up its prerogative forever in return for the Europeans'
commitment to build nuclear power plants in Iran and upgrade trade ties with the
Islamic Republic. As a result, when the last round of the Iran/EU-3 negotiations
started last November, the two sides ended up at a stalemate.

To make sure the United States did not sabotage their diplomatic effort, the
Europeans kept Washington abreast of their plans. By contrast, they paid little heed
to the Iranians' repeated statements that they would not countenance the prospect of
permanently abdicating their right to complete the whole nuclear cycle--enriching
uranium, which is abundant in Iran, using it as fuel for power plants and
reprocessing the spent fuel--as allowed in "Article IV" of the NPT.

Article IV of NPT:
Parties [i.e. IRAN] have the "inalienable right" to develop ... nuclear energy & to
acquire nuclear technology.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_Non-Proliferation_Treaty

The Iranians were focused on providing the EU-3 with "the objective guarantees" of
the peaceful nature of their nuclear program. In March they submitted detailed
proposals for strict monitoring by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of
Iran's nuclear program. The regime they proposed went further than the provisions of
the Additional Protocol on the NPT that they had signed in December 2003. EU
negotiators received the Iranian document without officially accepting it.

"The Framework for a Long-Term Agreement", which the Europeans proposed to Iran in
early August, made its offer of commercial incentives and building of nuclear
electric generating plants conditional on Tehran's permanent renunciation of its
rights under the NPT. At the same time, they demanded that Tehran promise not to
leave the NPT under any circumstances--which North Korea had done.

Iran rejected the European package. It resumed its work at the plant near Isfahan,
where uranium oxide (called yellowcake) is converted to uranium hexafluoride gas--but
only under the watchful eyes of the IAEA inspectors.

This gas is the feedstock for centrifuges that enrich uranium to varying degrees: 4%
for power plants, 20% for research reactors and 90% or higher for weapons.

This was a clear breach of Iran's agreement to suspend "all uranium enrichment
related activities" while talks with the EU-3 continued, cried the Europeans.

They threatened to take Iran to the United Nations Security Council. It was an empty
threat. Only the IAEA governors can do so.

At the emergency meeting of the IAEA governors in Vienna in August, the Europeans
discovered they did not have the wide majority they had hoped for among the
thirty-five governors. So they settled for a call to Tehran to revert to suspending
its activities related to uranium enrichment, and for the IAEA secretary-general to
report on the issue by September 3.

In their agitated state of mind, the EU-3 negotiators failed to realize that the only
valid basis for hauling Iran before the United Nations Security Council was its
breach of the global nuclear nonproliferation regime as enshrined in the NPT.

In its latest statement on the subject, the IAEA said that it had not found any
evidence that Iran was engaged in a nuclear weapons program, which is banned under
the NPT. (Later, the IAEA announced that its tests vindicated Iran's claims that
traces of enriched uranium found two years earlier by its inspectors at the Iranian
nuclear facilities were from the imported equipment, believed to be of Pakistani
origin.)

Not surprisingly, Washington dismissed the IAEA findings as meaningless.

Among those who remained coolly cognizant of the facts on the ground were fifteen
IAEA governors belonging to the Non-Aligned Movement. The NAM includes such
heavyweights as Brazil, India, Indonesia and South Africa.

At the IAEA's emergency session, Rajmah Hussein of Malaysia, the current NAM
chairman, reiterated NAM's position that all countries have a basic and inalienable
right to develop atomic energy for peaceful purposes--the prime objective for which
the IAEA was established in 1953 at the initiative of U.S. President Dwight
Eisenhower.

By design or happenstance, Iran has emerged as a champion of the developing world
with the courage and conviction to stand up to the Western world. This has won it
quiet admiration by NAM governors, who fear that the limitations imposed on Iran
could be extended to them eventually.

Little wonder that Ali Larijani (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Larijani), the
newly appointed secretary-general of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said
that he welcomed talks with all IAEA governors and NAM members.

This went down badly with both the EU-3 and the United States.

It is clear by now that further pressure on Tehran to abdicate its right would cause
a major fissure between the West and the developing world.

* Dilip Hiro is a playwright and analyst specializing in the developing world. He was
born in Pakistan and currently lives in London. He is the author of "The Longest War:
The Iran-Iraq Military Conflict"
(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0415904072), "Sharing the Promised
Land: A Tale of Israelis and Palestinians"
(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1566563194), "Between Marx and
Muhammad: The Changing Face of Central Asia"
(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/000638367X), "The Essential Middle
East: A Comprehensive Guide"
(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0786712694), "Dictionary of the Middle
East" (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0312174357), "Neighbors, Not
Friends: Iraq and Iran After the Persian Gulf Wars"
(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0415254116), "War Without End: Rise of
Islamist Terrorism and the Global Response"
(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0415288029), "Iraq: In the Eye of the
Storm" (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=1560254777), "Secrets and Lies:
Operation 'Iraqi Freedom' and After: A Prelude to the Fall of U.S. Power in the
Middle East?"
(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=1560255560) and, most recently, "The Iranian
Labyrinth: Journeys Through Theocratic Iran and its Furies"
(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1560257164).

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20050912/hiro

Related:
America's plan to undermine the high-level event
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/9927bb4f65924e34?hl=en

JEW media sycophants & 36% HEU - IRAN told the truth, yet JEW keeps lying
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/f90a6eef507f10a0?hl=en

Past Arguments Don't Square With Current Iran Policy
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/f53d3a05bc5403c1?hl=en

The fuel behind Iran's nuclear drive
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/2fcf81313deb4ae0?hl=en

The U.S. and Iran: Democracy, Terrorism, and Nuclear Weapons
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/0d0dcf76abbaafb1?hl=en

NO Nuclear double standards
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/8e41f4a8a1a3e04c?hl=en

Backlash Builds Against Cheney's 'Guns of August'
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/8286b2b389247d0a?hl=en

An offer Iran MUST refuse
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/743b96400831f8a1?hl=en

Zero Tolerance
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/1641ae424fde5b89?hl=en

Sino-Russian Guarantees?
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/bd8f5389ab0e8956?hl=en

More neo-crazy media sycophant LIES about Iran
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/d3fe84a9b64d20bc?hl=en

What The Neo-Crazies Knew
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/6b45fabf57726a03?hl=en

EU vs. Iran - Who's Right?
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/cbce70a3093360fb?hl=en

Iran should refer U.S. to Security Council for violating UNSCR-984
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/0d54ef8e41b971bf?hl=en

Castration of NPT - U.S. instantly tore up NPT for India, so why should Iran obey a
torn up agreement!
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/2c234f4a148cd298?hl=en

U.S. ripped NPT into pieces; Iran must withdraw from this annulled treaty
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/fbf55e939908b2c2?hl=en

U.S. proliferation rhetoric and reality
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/7d8c268ee51c07be?hl=en

Ambassador Bolton's Agenda
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/1ca916601b7a7bc8?hl=en

Iran's INALIENABLE RIGHT to uranium enrichment
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/245f6081b4e3d019?hl=en

A Palliative for Neo-Crazy Lies
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/1b7968f98173938d?hl=en

Inalienable right without discrimination
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/5012a673328fa044?hl=en

U.S. doesn't want to disarm even though it promised to do so
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/c0b86cad11cb9413?hl=en

UN Referral – Not
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/bddc928154c8c96a?hl=en

What Iranian obligations? What breaches? America's lies, lies, lies...
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/9535c4a90df98471?hl=en

Memo to slimy senators
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/7065ffd57b51a959?hl=en

U.S. promised in 2000, to get rid of it's nukes!
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/1e23bafecdac9e82?hl=en

U.S. has violated Iran's NPT rights!
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/02f1f48fafcac2b6?hl=en

Iran's diplomatic masterpiece
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/f532352654efee1d?hl=en

Bush to sabotage NPT
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/6386adef83860d3e?hl=en

West's repeated violations of "Article IV & I" against Iran
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/0123ceb12dd47321?hl=en

Israel guns for Iran - Why?
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/2c0274540f3957b7?hl=en

U.S. wants definition of NPT 'noncompliance' changed!!!
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/2abab5a7b8bce4c5?hl=en

NTP for dummies
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/f317bb918ca244da?hl=en

CNN's Wolf Blitzer & David Albright: Jews global campaign against Iran
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/44fcd2a53218eb52?hl=en

The Real Threat From John Bolton
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/16fb61c3cca32703?hl=en

81-mm smoking rockets
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/fb2c580ba00d79a6?hl=en

U.S. plans to destroy NPT
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/760abaff1d8ac7c2?hl=en

Nuts to Bush
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/de936f823b4dfb11?hl=en

Iran's logic proven correct to the entire World
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/a5798de678dad2a9?hl=en

Sandbagging the NSG (Nuclear Suppliers Group)
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/238000abe8fe032e?hl=en

What Noncompliance?
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/32f537772749ecc2?hl=en

Sandbagging the EU
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/bb437d1ee00ad1e9?hl=en

Bye-Bye, NPT
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/eb8e9f617d0e0867?hl=en

Jew tells Bush to lie about Iran
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/c96849f55f92353e?hl=en

Targeting Non-existent Nukes?
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/e25e86754767e3ef?hl=en

Blindly Backing Israel Against Iran
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/ca49370dcc1f41a4?hl=en

Condi Desperate to Stop EU-China-Iran Chain Reaction
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/26e6a24b43339654?hl=en

The Impossible Dream in the State of the Union Address
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/74938ea7958d0764?hl=en

Targeting Iran
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/dbb46af7ff3f0b66?hl=en

Bay of Pigs part 2, CIA-Israeli-MEK
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/b58f2a1d8b2290ff?hl=en

Threatening Iran - despite the evidence
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/ce6e09919da68cbb?hl=en

Virtual Nukes
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/c245e595ad17ae57?hl=en

Iran's having the capability to enrich uranium is not even tantamount to having the
capability to produce the essentially pure uranium-235 required to make a nuke
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/303c3ca53b67c0a7?hl=en

Dangerous Delusions About Iran
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/42c57f2ae0cdb3b0?hl=en

Thwarting the Neo-Crazies
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/66c79d721fd588d4?hl=en

Trashing the IAEA Again
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/f8c610f6cc9e1fda?hl=en

U.S. keeps lying about Iran again & again
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/e9f480b192bd425e?hl=en

Iran's Stealthy Nukes
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/e47cc87d2b268368?hl=en

Uranium-Enrichment Myths Busted
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/f7ebc6f4bed9d13a?hl=en

Iran Plays by the Rules - No Fair!
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/25be300601cc8984?hl=en

Nuclear Bait and Switch
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/0a0dc80ca3b8e98f?hl=en

The myth of Iranian nukes
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/bf78503a661673e9?hl=en

North Korea has what Iraq didn't
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/56f613221080276e?hl=en

Iran has absolute right to enrich uranium
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/0a8ac2dc599976ba?hl=en

Iran is in full compliance with NPT & IAEA
http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/737b74e86ba897cb?hl=en