| Posted By
Amina Anderson May
31, 2008
It seems that the Iranian
nuclear dispute wouldn’t be settled easily. The latest
report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
that Tehran is still withholding critical information that
could determine whether it is trying to make nuclear weapons
leaves the crisis open, according to an article on the
BBC.
The report’s timing is
critical as the Iranian nuclear file is featuring heavily in
the U.S. presidential campaign, with Republican nominee John
McCain, who once sang “bomb, bomb, bomb Iran”, and
Democratic hopeful Hillary Clinton, who threatened to
obliterate the Iranians if Tehran attacked Israel, both
suggesting that Democrat Barack Obama is showing weakness
for proposing talks with the Islamic Republic.
It’s obvious that the
Iranian nuclear dispute would be a key issue for the next
U.S. president, assuming that President Bush doesn’t attack
Tehran in his final months in office.
Analysts say that the
problem now isn’t just Iran’s defiance of UN demands and
sanctions to halt uranium enrichment. The main concern of
the new IAEA report is Iran’s lack of cooperation in the
investigation to resolve pending issues regarding its past
nuclear activities. This cooperation is needed to dismiss
allegations that Iran didn’t give up all suspicious
activities.
But Iran insists that it has
answered all pending questions and that its intentions are
entirely peaceful.
The IAEA is particularly
concerned about the acquisition by Iran, probably from the
Pakistani nuclear scientist AQ Khan, of a 15-page document
describing, as the IAEA puts it, "the procedures for the
reduction of UF6 [uranium hexafluoride] to uranium metal and
the machining of enriched uranium metal into hemispheres,
which are components of nuclear weapons".
But Tehran has told the IAEA
that this design document was received along with the P-1
centrifuge [machines that enrich uranium] documentation in
1987 and that it hadn’t requested it.
The IAEA has a copy of the
document but says it has not been able to discuss its
contents fully with Iranian officials.
But Iran’s mission to the
United Nations said the new IAEA report confirmed the
peaceful nature of its nuclear activities in the past and at
the present.
It also said that the report
admitted that Iran, as a signatory of the Non-Proliferation
Treaty, remained committed to regulations of the NPT and
other international treaties and had full cooperation with
the UN nuclear watchdog.
Meanwhile, the EU's chief
foreign policy representative, Javier Solana, is still
seeking to persuade Iran to halt uranium enrichment. He is
expected to visit Tehran soon with an improved offer of
incentives if Tehran does agree to suspension.
For its part, Iran has
offered a joint venture on enrichment with foreign partners,
but on Iranian soil.
Whether Tehran’s offer is
accepted or not, it seems that the effect of the Iranian
nuclear dispute is being felt all over the world.
In a report, the
International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) said
that 13 countries across the Middle East have shown sudden
interest in nuclear energy.
"This upsurge of interest is
remarkable, given both the abundance of traditional energy
sources in the region and the low standing to date of
nuclear energy there," said IISS Director General Dr John
Chipman.
"Notwithstanding the
legitimate energy and economic motivations behind this
sudden region-wide interest in nuclear power, political
factors also play an important role...
"The single most salient
political factor... is Iran's development of dual-use
nuclear technologies, which motivates at least some of its
neighbours to seek fledgling nuclear capabilities of their
own.
"If Tehran's nuclear
programme is unchecked, there is reason for concern that it
could in time prompt a regional cascade of proliferation
among Iran's neighbours.
"A proliferation cascade
would become more likely if Israel felt obliged to
relinquish its long-standing doctrine of nuclear 'opacity'
or ambiguity... as this would increase the pressure on Egypt
and perhaps other Arab states to seek their own nuclear
deterrents."
The report came as former
U.S. President Jimmy Carter said that Israel has 150 nuclear
weapons, the first time an American president has publicly
acknowledged the Jewish state's atomic arsenal.
Another development is the
U.S.’s allegation that Syria was building a secret nuclear
reactor. The site has been bombed by Israel last
September.
Moreover, the existing
nuclear-armed countries are also modernising their weapons.
The UK is upgrading Trident, the U.S. is planning the
so-called Reliable Replacement Warhead and the Russian and
Chinese have their own nuclear plans.
All
this confirms that nuclear non-proliferation is still a key
international issue that will continue to grow if the
Iranian dispute is not resolved, and this doesn’t seem
likely in the near future.
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