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- Nuclear inspectors report progress
- US sabotages Russian peace offer
Iran demands
peace
Milan Rai
While UN nuclear inspectors
report "good progress" on their
"work plan" to clear up suspicions about Iran's past nuclear
activities, the United States has
been deliberately undermining
Russian diplomatic efforts to
resolve the crisis.
Meanwhile, urged on by
Nobel Peace Prize laureate
Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian government seems to be edging closer
to a climbdown over its nuclear
programme.
Iranians for peace
On 18 November, Shirin Ebadi, the
Iranian lawyer who won the Nobel
Peace Prize in 2003, made a rare
public criticism of her government's nuclear policy, despite the
fact that president Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad had a week earlier
described anyone opposing his
stance as a "traitor".
Ebadi urged her government to
conform to UN Security Council
resolutions, and to suspend the
enrichment of uranium.
While nuclear energy was
"every nation's right", Iranians
"should not insist so hard on one
right so that we lose all other
rights in one go," said the former
judge, referring to the rights to
"security, peace and welfare"
which might be lost in war.
She called for the creation of a
"national peace campaign" to
enable the Iranian people to say
"what they want", and to "show
the world that Iranians are peaceseekers."
"Good progress"
The nuclear crisis has two components: suspicions about Iran's past
nuclear activities, and fears as to
how Tehran might use its enrichment facilities in the future.
On the first track, the UN's
International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA) has been pursuing
a thorough "work plan" investigat-
ing Iran's past activities.
IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei
reported on 22 November that
there had been "good progress"
on clearing up questions relating
to Iran's centrifuge programme
(one of the two major problem
areas).
There had also been "an
increased level of cooperation"
from Tehran (though it was not yet
"pro-active").
ElBaradei called for greater
efforts from Iran to enable the
IAEA to conclude its investigation
by the end of the year.
One way out
As for the future, if Iran were to
expel IAEA inspectors, it could use
its growing enrichment capacity
(currently 3,000 centrifuges Â
though operating below capacity)
to create weapons-grade uranium.
(See the JNV supplement inside
this issue for an explanation.)
A number of countries have
been attempting to persuade Iran
to give up enriching uranium itself,
and to import nuclear fuel from
another country. This would prevent Iran from being able to produce weapons-grade uranium.
US sabotage
A promising effort came from Russia in mid-October, we learned
from the Guardian on 13 November. Russian president Vladimir
Putin travelled to Tehran for a
face-to-face meeting with Iran's
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei, and offered to enrich
Iran's uranium on Russian soil.
Putin, who had gained Bush's
agreement beforehand, also
informed the most powerful man
in Iran that Washington was prepared to enter into direct and
comprehensive negotiations if Iran
suspended uranium enrichment.
Khamenei asked for time to
consider the offer, but then, barely
a week later (without consulting
Moscow), the US imposed unilateral financial sanctions on three
Iranian banks, on the Iranian ministry of defence, and on the Revo-
lutionary Guard.
The Russian proposal was in
tatters. In response to Moscow's
anger, British and US officials
pointed out that the Russian offer
was already in trouble after the
resignation on 20 October of Iran's
chief nuclear negotiator Ari Larijani, and his replacement by the
more hardline Saeed Jalili.
However, this does not explain
why, when hardliners were already
gaining influence, the US chose to
strengthen their hand with the
harshest sanctions yet imposed,
dooming Putin's initiative.
Sign of hope
Despite US sabotage, Tehran may
be inching towards this kind of
solution.
Saudi Arabia and the five other
Arab members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) have also
suggested that Iran give up
enriching uranium on its own soil,
and acquire nuclear fuel from elsewhere - but from a neutral third
party, such as Switzerland.
On 18 November, President
Ahmadinejad responded: "We will
be talking with our [Arab] friends"
about the scheme.
It is possible that by the end of
the year the IAEA will declare Iran
"clean" in terms of its past nuclear
activities, and the Iranian government will suspend and close down
its own enrichment facilities, denying itself such dangerous technology in the future.
If the IAEA and the GCC are to
make progress, they will require
diplomatic support, not threats
and sabotage.
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