[lit-ideas] Iran option
- From: Omar Kusturica <omarkusto@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2006 05:12:04 -0800 (PST)
The US and Europe would be well advised to consider
the anomalies in their article of faith, their
self-constructed paradigm sheepishly followed by their
"free and pluralistic press" regarding Iran's
purported march toward nuclear weapons. Briefly:
In 1995, Iran voted in favor of the indefinite
extension of the NPT.
Iran has been an enthusiastic supporter of the CTBT
(Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty) and, in light of the
required nuclear testing for any would-be
proliferators, this raises the question of why would
Iran take such steps if it is not in its nuclear
interests.
Iran just reversed a two-year "voluntary and legally
non-binding" suspension of its uranium-enrichment
activities.
In Brussels in January, Iran put forward a six-point
proposal that includes another two-year moratorium on
uranium enrichment - a novel proposal dismissed out of
hand as old news by British Foreign Secretary Jack
Straw. The other points included Iran re-embracing the
Additional Protocol by formally legislating for its
adoption, and pursuit of an international fuel bank.
Another proposal, still on the table and submitted
last March to the IAEA and the EU-3 - Germany, France
and Britain - was for a contained, monitored
enrichment.
Iran's leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has issued a
religious decree, fatwa , against the acquisition,
development and use of nuclear weapons, a position he
and other leaders of the Islamic Republic have
regularly reiterated.
These points count as "anomalies" in the sense that
they do not support the behavior of a would-be
proliferator. Indeed, if that were the case, why would
the Iranian leaders insist so much, and so frequently,
on the un-Islamic and amoral nature of nuclear
weapons?
On the other hand, it is impossible to isolate the
Iranian nuclear issue from other developments, above
all the United States' desire to defang the Islamic
Republic via the nuclear standoff by isolating it and,
at a minimum, weakening it considerably. This would
remove a major barrier to its planned visions for the
"greater Middle East". These extra-nuclear
considerations are often neglected in the West.
...
What is remarkable about the Iranian nuclear crisis is
how close it could be to being resolved. Iran is
willing to forgo large-scale enrichment and limit
itself to a small cascade of centrifuges for research
and development, in conjunction with assurances of a
fuel supply, mainly from the Russians.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HC17Ak02.html
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