Iran’s Unrelenting Path to Nuclear Power

The recent statements by Gen James Jones, President Obama’s national security adviser that the door is open for President Obama to meet with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad if the Iranians agree to resume talks with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) regarding their nuclear program could break the impasse in the situation with that country. President Ahmadinejad should eagerly take this opportunity to present Iran’s position to President Obama and improve relations with the U.S.
“There is no point in a theatrical meeting,” stated Gen Jones in an interview with CNN. “One thing they must do is return our three hikers. That would be an important gesture. It could lead to better relations.” Improved relations are now more necessary ever, given the controversy created by the start-up of the Bushehr nuclear power plant. The conditions under which the plant will start providing energy to Iranian cities could become a model for other nuclear plants in the country devoted to peaceful purposes.
Russia has pledged to safeguard the site and prevent spent nuclear fuel to make nuclear weapons and the U.S. State Department released a statement indicating that it does not see the fueling of Iran’s first nuclear power plant in Bushehr as a “proliferation risk.” The Obama administration, hoping to lower the prospects for an Israeli strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities, has assured Israel that it would probably take a year or even longer for Iran to develop a nuclear weapon.
That is not Israel’s position, however. “World powers must strengthen pressure against Iran to comply with international decisions, stop its activities in uranium enrichment and heavy water plants, and respond to the criticism against it,” said a statement issued by Israel’s foreign ministry. However, Israel itself has refused to sign the Non Proliferation Treaty and is widely assumed to have an arsenal of between 100 and 200 hundred nuclear weapons.
In September of 2009, the General Conference of the IAEA called on Israel to open its nuclear facilities to IAEA inspection and adhere to the non-proliferation treaty as part of a resolution on “Israeli nuclear capabilities.” “Israel will not co-operate in any matter with this resolution,” declared the chief Israeli delegate to the conference.
As a signatory of the Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), Iran has a right to develop nuclear energy for peaceful use. Iran’s officials have stated that Iran will accept that monitors from the IAEA have access to the fuel shipments at Bushehr, located 745 miles south of Tehran. IAEA officials were at the site last Saturday as the first truckloads of fuel were moved from a storage site to a “pool” inside the reactor, part of the agreement with the Iranian authorities.
This happens at the same time that international media and neoconservative figures in the U.S. continue beating the drums for a war against Iran. That is the case of former U.S. ambassador to the UN John Bolton. In what can only be described as an irresponsible statement, Bolton stated that Israel had a window of opportunity of eight days to attack Bushehr’s nuclear reactor. What Bolton and other neoconservatives in Washington refuse to acknowledge are the tremendous consequences that such a move by Israel would entail, including dragging the U.S. into the confrontation.
Ahmadinejad’s ranting against Israel cannot be a justification for a war against that country. At the same time, he cannot afford to lose this opportunity and take Gen James Jones offer by immediately releasing the three U.S. hikers it is keeping under detention and engaging in serious diplomatic talks with the U.S. At stake is not only Iran’s nuclear program, but a safer world as well.
Dr César Chelala, a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award, writes extensively on human rights and foreign policy issues.