(Indo-)Western nuclear double-speak

I            

As the country's presidential election in June in which the incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is also a candidate, is approaching, the West is building up pressure on Tehran to abandon it nuclear ambitions. Bent upon coercing Iran to give up its legitimate nuclear program at par with other nuclear powers today, US-led West has manipulated a few Islamic nations to their side against Iran and making the world believe that only Iran would have nukes in future. A former NAM leader and now a so-called US- strategic partner on nuclear terms, nuclear India, which imports energy resources from Iran, voted against Iran, thereby exposing its changing colors on self-promotion. It is shameful that the nuclear states that developed nuclear facility under illegal cover talk at length about Iran’s nuclear onward march. But Iran’s progress cannot be stopped by any power on earth now.

All these world powers focus only on select weak nations for sanctions, like Iran and they question the Iranian, along with North Korean, nuclear position, but cunningly avoid discussing Israeli nukes acquired by illegal means. Nor do the powers have the courage to denounce their own nukes and decide to dismantle all nuclear structures. USA and Security Council keep warning Iran against its nuclear program and unleash economic terrorism known as sanctions against Tehran which remains steadfast in its resolve to possess nuclear facility as part of scientific achievements which the nuclear powers boast themselves of.

Even as USA is slowing down its pressure tactics on Tehran, now UK’s Brown issues Iran nuclear warning, but also ignores Israeli position on nuclear weapons. UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has warned Iran it faces a "clear choice" over its nuclear program - and urged it to let the world help it get civil nuclear power. Brown said an expansion of nuclear power was needed globally to meet carbon reduction targets. Brown said that unless it agreed to the UN overseeing the program Iran faced "further and tougher sanctions". He argued that Iran would be a test of how nuclear nations can work together with non-nuclear states to equip them with new sources of energy and urged it to pursue a purely civil nuclear path with the promise of international support and engagement. As “peaceful” purpose, enriched uranium can be used in power plants, but can also be used to make atomic weapons. All those nuclear powers began their nuclear programs for “peaceful” purposes only, but the real motive was to make nukes to threaten the world. Western powers equipped fascist Israel with nuclear strength which Tel Aviv is using to threaten and invade its Arab neighbors.

Iran is currently defying Security Council resolutions ordering it to suspend the enrichment of uranium. It says it is simply doing what it is allowed to do under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and goes ahead with its project. The Iranian government continues to defy the Western dictates, enriching enough uranium - according to a recent report by the International Atomic Energy Authority (IAEA) - to fill a warhead. Iran repeatedly says its nuclear program is designed for developing civil nuclear power rather than weapons.

UK seems to have been used by USA to persuade Tehran to give up nuclear program. Iran’s current nuclear program is unacceptable to Israeli allies. Like other nuclear powers, Iran has also concealed its nuclear activities, pursuing its nuclear goals. West does not like being disobeyed by Iran, a Muslim nation and formerly a US ally that fought a bloody war against Iraq with US weapons. They say Iran refused to cooperate with the IAEA, flouted UNSC resolutions and its refusal to play by the rules “leads us to view its nuclear program as a critical nuclear threat”. Iran is given an ultimatum, a clear choice: to continue in this way and face further and tougher sanctions, or change to an UN-overseen civil nuclear energy program, that will bring the greatest benefits to its citizens. Iran rejects compromises with West over its rights.  

II

In February 2009 Iranian and Russian nuclear officials have begun a test run of Iran’s first nuclear power plant at Bushehr with Russian help which the USA opposes. The test involves dummy rods that imitate the enriched uranium needed to run the Russian-built plant at Bushehr. The test is likely to fuel fears in the West about Iran's nuclear ambitions, though Tehran says they are peaceful, but the West say Iran has hidden nukes agenda.  Iran had increased the number of its centrifuges enriching uranium at another site to 6,000. Iran would have to take the dramatic step of expelling international inspectors and Russian engineers for it to use the Bushehr plant to make nuclear bombs.

But Brown said the world will not secure the supply of sustainable energy on which the planet depends, without a role for nuclear power and the world needed "moral leadership… collaboration, not isolation". Brown said Britain would be "at the forefront" of efforts towards general nuclear disarmament when international talks are held next year and "if it is possible to reduce the number we have of our own warheads... Britain will be ready to do so". However he should have moved a resolution in the UNSC to this effect.

Brown said the offer is still on the table for the Iranians to take up this extraordinarily generous and unprecedented offer to help them with their civil program" and encouraged Iran to accept US President Barack Obama's offer of negotiation and to heed calls from China, Russia and leading European powers to comply with UN nuclear resolutions. Defense Secretary John Hutton restated that, if Iran continued with its nuclear weapons program, it "would be very destabilizing for the region and the world. The consequences of that are too frightening to think about". He added: "We have got to be clear with Iran about the consequences of them not complying. The clock is ticking on all of this... “Iran just ignores such threatening rhetoric from the “big powers.

The UK Conservatives say that Iran has the right to develop civil nuclear power, provided that it cooperates fully with the IAEA and complies with the non-proliferation treaty. The rights come with responsibilities, which in Iran's case have been violated. Conservatives repeat call for EU countries to impose tougher sanctions against Iran while it refuses to comply with Security Council resolutions or to give full access to international nuclear inspectors. Liberal Democrat energy and climate change spokesman Simon Hughes said: "A new generation of nuclear power stations will not solve climate change. They will produce too little energy, come on stream too late and be too expensive….it undermines our security"

West is trying to use the poll climate in Iran to pressurize Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is facing elections this year, to come forward for compromises with the West, but he has shown little sign of wanting a "deal" to put the country's nuclear program under international supervision in return for the lifting of sanctions and financial assistance.  

Some of Obama’s advisors prefer diplomacy for Iranian conflict and President Obama has hinted at a new diplomacy in Mideast. The engagement with Tehran started with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's public invitation to Tehran to attend a conference in The Hague on 31 March to discuss Afghanistan. Iran has said it is mulling over the invite. It is likely that most of the engagement will initially be cautious and involve small steps. Washington was planning to lift the ban on regular diplomatic contacts with Iranian officials around the world, enabling US diplomats to engage with Iranians just as they would with representatives of other countries, including those with which the USA has difficult relations. This would allow the two countries, which have had little contact in 30 years, to "reacquaint themselves with each other" and slowly build trust before any substantive discussions

According to IAEA forecasts, more than 30 nuclear reactors will have to be built every year if the world is to meet its target of halving carbon emissions by 2050. The head of the IAEA, Mohamed ElBaradei, has suggested that Iran be allowed to enrich small amounts under strict inspection. But Israel has been making it clear for some time that it will not tolerate an Iranian nuclear weapon, though in the absence of any actual weapon, the question is whether it would dare attack Iran on the assumption that one might be built competing with Israeli nukes.

III

Iran's recent successful launch of its own satellite by its own rocket shows how it is slowly but surely mastering the missile technology that the West and Israel fear one day might be available as a delivery system for a nuclear weapon. It also shows, as Iran itself has triumphantly proclaimed, that the UN sanctions against Iran, which include sanctions against its missile program as well as its nuclear activities, have not stopped this event.

Even while confronting with Iran, USA was making efforts to reach out to Tehran through back-doors. The US has offered to engage with Iran to reduce tensions, while insisting it will not tolerate it having a nuclear bomb and extending sanctions against Tehran. A move to create a US interest section in Tehran was debated last year by the Bush administration, which eventually decided against it. The Obama administration is also steering clear, because the move would present too many headaches - an "interests section" could be seen by Iranians as a nest of spies, and might become a target for demonstrators. Iranians may be reluctant to go inside for fear of being harassed by the authorities. USA tried to use the time when Israeli pressure on Iran was very high, but Iran did not show any interest. Europeans often used Israel's belligerence to try to pressure the Iranians into starting serious negotiations about their nuclear program.

So far, the Iranians have not responded to an offer by Washington and its partners to give up its nuclear program in exchange for a package of incentives, since substantive issues were not being addressed. Washington should make it clear to Tehran that the USA is genuinely interested in establishing a new tone and context for the relationship.

The next stage in the confrontation is for the Obama administration to develop its policy toward Iran. One option for Washington is to drop the demand for an Iranian freeze on nuclear enrichment as a pre-condition for talks. The Obama administration is finalizing its policy for engaging Iran, conducting an assessment. The approach is likely to involve a combination of small steps to initiate contact between the two countries and may include an overture in the form of a letter to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, US officials, however, insist that no final decisions have been made and no announcements are expected for at least another 10 days.

Former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami has officially announced his withdrawal from the country's presidential election in June, leaving Ahmadinejad in a stronger position to get re-elected, despite heavy criticism of his management of the economy. The most powerful backers of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the region are anti-American while a lot of Iranian people were favorably inclined to the US, but now have also turned anti-America. USA should send a clear message to Iran that Washington was not seeking regime change. UN, UNSC and IAEA should come out with a statement about Israel’s nukes.  

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Yours Sincerely,

DR. ABDUL RUFF Colachal

Columnist & Independent Researcher in World Affairs, The only Indian to have gone through entire India
South Asia.