[lit-ideas] The case against sanctions on Iran
- From: Omar Kusturica <omarkusto@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 1 May 2006 21:57:41 -0700 (PDT)
As expected, the director general of the International
Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, has issued a
report citing Iran's non-compliance with the requests
of both the IAEA's board of governors and the United
Nations Security Council, and this has been widely
interpreted as paving the way to UN sanctions on Iran
in the near future. But has it?
Sanctions can be resorted to under Chapter VII of the
UN Charter when considered by the Security Council to
be absolutely necessary. To do so, the council would
have to determine, under Article 39 of Chapter VII,
the existence of any "threat to the
peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression"
caused by Iran's nuclear activities.
Yet, per the admission of ElBaradei in his report, all
of Iran's nuclear activities "are covered by Agency
Safeguard containment and surveillance measures".
This, together with the important finding that all
nuclear material has been accounted for, raises a
serious questions from the prism of international law:
On what basis can the Security Council invoke Chapter
VII against Iran?
Surely, the IAEA's complaint of Iran's non-cooperation
with its requests for "confidence-building measures"
that are voluntary and non-legally binding cannot
possibly suffice to grant the United States' wish for
invoking Chapter VII, for to do so is to substitute
superpower exigencies for international law.
Put simply, there is insufficient and/or non-existing
evidence, the calculated disinformation aside, to
support Western allegations of an Iranian weapons
build up; these allegations, initially claiming
clandestine activities, have now almost entirely
focused on Iran's transparent nuclear activities
without, however, being able to pin-point any
discernable signs of military use via those
activities.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HE02Ak01.html
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