http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
Understanding the Iranian Perspective in Nuclear Negotiations
Posted: 11/18/2013 4:22 pm
William O. Beeman
Briefly stated in Iran's position everything is based on the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to which Iran is a signatory and from which Iran derives its "inalienable right" to peaceful nuclear development.
There are 189 signatories to the Treaty (not including Israel, India, Pakistan or North Korea). The United States and its five allies do not have the power or the authority to deprive Iran of its rights under the treaty, including the right to enrich uranium and build nuclear reactors, a principle accepted for years by the Europeans and only recently called into question ONLY for Iran.
The U.S. and its allies have observed that some non-nuclear weapons states use nuclear technology but don't enrich uranium, and therefore Iran shouldn't claim that as a treaty right. First, that is not how the treaty reads. Besides this, however, the fact that some nuclear nations don't enrich uranium is utterly irrelevant. These nations could start tomorrow and no one would question them. Additionally, there are a number of NPT signatory states that do enrich uranium, such as Japan and Brazil, whose right to do so is unquestioned. Japan has even announced that it will construct nuclear weapons in the future if it has the need.
Some claim that Iran has violated the treaty by not allowing inspections of its facilities. Inspections under the NPT only pertain to sites with fissile material or which will contain fissile material in 180 days. The P5+1 nations negotiating with Iran have demanded unlimited additional inspections of non-fissile material sites without specifying them. Two are, however, widely mentioned: the incomplete Arak heavy-water nuclear electricity plant, which contains no fissile material and the Parchin military base, already inspected some years ago and found to have no fissile material.
UN Security Council resolutions on Iran have been cited as an "obligation" incumbent on Iran to cease its enrichment of uranium. However, these resolutions, starting with the first one,UNSC 1696 , although using the word "demand" in calling on Iran to suspend uranium enrichment, make it clear that this suspension is placed in the context of an earlier International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors resolution that sees such suspension as "necessary" as a confidence building measure. In the language of the resolution:
Outstanding questions can best be resolved and confidence built in the exclusively peaceful nature of Iran's program by Iran responding positively to the calls for confidence building measures which the Board has made on Iran (IAEA 2006)It has now been seven years since these resolutions were approved. In the intervening years there has been no evidence whatever of an Iranian nuclear weapons program. Two publicly released US National Intelligence Estimates in 2007 and 2011 declared that Iran did not have an active nuclear weapons program. Every IAEA Report since 2003 declares that Iran has not diverted nuclear material for military purposes. Here is the relevant passage from the August 28, 2013 report.
Notwithstanding that certain of the activities being undertaken by Iran at some of the facilities are contrary to the relevant resolutions of the Board of Governors and the Security Council, as indicated below, the Agency continues to verify the non-diversion of declared material at these facilities and LOFs [locations outside facilies]. (IAEA 2013a, p. 3, section C.8.)U.S. officials and media commentators have continually claimed that Iran is not cooperating with the IAEA. However on November 11, the Iranian government and the IAEA reached clear accords on Iran providing additional inspection and information regarding its program. Here is the language of the accord showing that Iran has agreed to:
1. Providing mutually agreed relevant information and managed access to the Gchine mine in Bandar AbbasIran's actions clearly do not constitute non-cooperation. The November 11 IAEA accord also includes provisions that have been discussed by the P5+1 negotiators, and have been indicated in press reports to still be controversial. Clearly these have been resolved to the satisfaction of the IAEA at present.
2. Providing mutually agreed relevant information and managed access to the Heavy Water Production Plant
3. Providing information on all new research reactors
4. Providing information with regard to the identification of 16 sites designated for the construction of nuclear power plants
5. Clarification of the announcement made by Iran regarding additional enrichment facilities
6. Further clarification of the announcement made by Iran with respect to laser enrichment technology (IAEA 2013b)
There are hosts of other irrelevant issues that have crept into press reports about Iran and these negotiations, such as concern about the Iranian government threatening to destroy Israel (a total lie -- it never happened) , supporting Hezbollah and Hamas, also claims with little contemporary merit. Iran's human rights record is definitely of great concern, as is its support for the Assad regime in Syria. But these again are irrelevant to the nuclear negotiations. The essence of these claims seem to be that Iran has behaved badly in other areas, and so doesn't deserve to enjoy its treaty rights.
This is not how treaty law operates, however. Many nations, including the United States have behaved badly in international relations in areas that have nothing to do with their rights and obligations under a host of treaties. To compare one with the other is a comparison of apples and oranges.
For the United States, France or the other P5+1 nations to expect Iran to abrogate its rights under pressure is both unrealistic and unreasonable. Iran will only relinquish those rights if it can be persuaded that it is receiving significant benefits for paying such a high price in terms of its sovereignty and honor. Certainly additional pressure in the form of increased sanctions against Iran will not be persuasive.
Follow William O. Beeman on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/wbeeman
Posts
6 comments:
Seems to me that those irrelevant issues you mention are quite important in considering the trustworthiness of the Iranians.
Most of us in the US, Israel, and Saudi Arabia, France and many other countries do not see things the way you say the Iranians do.
I think that you are either a paid non-registered agent of Iran, a simple tool, or both.
Furthermore, the hard-liners in Iran seem to be as much against any significant rapport with the US as do the majority of US legislators.
What do you think that Major General Qassem Suleimani of the Revolutionary Guards would have say about the lack of threats to the existence of Israel, which you say never happened? He would call you a liar, as I do now.
Two days ahead of his swearing in, Iranian president-elect Hassan Rouhani said, Friday, "The Zionist regime has been a wound on the body of the Islamic world for years and the wound must be removed." Rouhani was talking to reporters in Tehran on the sidelines of Al-Quds Day observances, an annual show of support for the Palestinian Authority at Israel's expense on the last day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
1. I am neither a paid agent of Iran nor a simple tool. I have been a student of Iranian culture for more than 40 years.
2. The Iranian people are greatly desirous of rapprochement with the US, and President Rouhani, who has the support of Ayatollah Khamene'i campaigned on the promise to achieve this.
3. Regarding non-threats to Israel, this is not my assessment, it is the assessment of the past four directors of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, one of whom I quote in my most recent Huffington Post article (also posted on this blog). Read their comments for yourself.
4. Rouhani's remarks were mistranslated. He did not say the wound (zakhm in Persian) must be "removed" at all. That is a total fabrication of the news organizations. It was corrected.
The fact that the New York Times jumped to print the incorrect information about Mr. Rouhani's comments is testament to the prejudicial reporting that has persisted in writing about Iran. The initial incorrect report appeared on the Times front page. The Lede, a New York Times Blog has printed a fairly extensive review of the mistake including a video of Rouhani's remarks.
Nevertheless this is is a pale correction to the Times initial misreporting. Mr. Rouhani's remarks are about the state of affairs surrounding the city of Jerusalem, which was the focus of his remarks. There is no mention of Israel, only of "coercion" and "oppression" which are the "sores" (zakhm) that have persisted for the Muslim world. Who could take issue with that? Clearly the New York Times and Prime Minister Netanyahu, who twisted these remarks into some imagined attack on Israel are ready to twist anything they can to besmirch Iran and its leaders.
As I've mentioned you've been wrong about many things. You may well be right about the desire of young people in Iran for new leadership. However this does not immediately translate into a civilised approach to foreign affairs. The diehard religious fundamentalists are still very much in control. Presently they are "the Iranian people."
As for your ludicrous effort to support your argument about Iran's threat to Israel by mentioning several Mossad directors- that cannot go unchallenged. It is perhaps correct only in the sense that the threat of a breakout of nuclear weaponisation is not possible in a matter of few months.
There is no doubt that those in control in Iran desire the removal of the state of Israel. Your sophistry in this regard is abundantly evident and does not obscure this fact.
Have you read the article by Dexter Filkins in the New Yorker re. Major General Qassem Suleimani?
As long as the present theocratic regime is in power in Iran surrounded by those who prosper from their connection with the religios fanatics I do not expect anything good to come out of efforts to include Iran, the pariah state, in the world community.
I love it when folks come together and share articles.
Post a Comment