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Iran edging toward
crisis
By Safa Haeri
PARIS - With neither Iran nor its European
interlocutors prepared to soften their positions
on Tehran's determination to push ahead with its
nuclear program, the risk of provoking a major
international crisis increases.
Iran on
the weekend officially rejected as "without value
and unacceptable" a proposal by the European
Union's so-called Big Three or EU-3 it had
received from the ambassadors of Britain, France
and Germany in Tehran two days earlier.
"The proposal does not consider Iran's
inalienable right to enriching uranium. Not only
is it very weak in the field of sound guarantees
for cooperation in political, economic, security,
technological and nuclear matters contained in the
Paris Agreements, but it also contravenes the
Non-Proliferation Treaty, the Tehran Accords of
October 2003 and the Paris Agreements of November
2004 by not accepting uranium-enriching," Hussein
Moussavian, a senior Iranian negotiator, had told
Mehr news agency earlier.
The EU-3
proposal included offers to help Iran develop
civilian nuclear energy and become a major transit
route for Central Asian oil. But it denied Iran
the right to produce its own nuclear fuel for
power reactors.
On Monday, Reuters quoted
a senior Iranian official as saying that United
Nations inspectors with the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA) had arrived at a uranium
conversion plant in Isfahan in Iran to install
surveillance equipment and oversee the removal of
seals in preparation for Tehran resuming work
there.
This will bring Iran into direct
confrontation with the EU, which has warned that
Iran will be referred to the UN Security Council
for possible sanctions if it restarted the plant.
The EU-3 have called an emergency meeting
of the IAEA board of governors for Tuesday to warn
Iran not to resume work at Isfahan.
In
response, Moussavian warned, "If the Europeans
call an extraordinary meeting it will be a
violation of all international rules and they
should not expect us to maintain the freeze of our
(nuclear) activities."
On August 2, Tehran
made its surprising declaration to resume
suspended nuclear activities, just days before
Mahmud Ahmadinejad was sworn in as the new
president.
One day before that, Tehran had
officially informed the IAEA about its intention
to reactivate works at Isfahan, and asked the
agency to dispatch inspectors and technicians to
help in taking off seals placed at the
installations and place new monitoring devices.
According to some details obtained by Asia
Times Online from the 30-page document outlining
the EU-3 package offered to Iran, it would give
Iran the occasion "to open a new chapter in its
relations with the international community". The
EU-3 pledged to support Iran's nuclear projects
for peaceful uses; provide nuclear power plants
and "sustained, long-term" fuel guaranteed by the
IAEA, and also the "gradual lifting of obstacles"
preventing Iran from getting advanced
technologies.
The package also includes
all necessary measures concerning the respect of
Iranian territorial integrity, independence and
sovereignty of Iran and non-aggression against it;
strengthening cooperation in the political and
security fields in both the international and
regional arenas, including the fight against
terrorism and drug smuggling, as well as fostering
Iran-EU relations, which includes signing a trade
and cooperation agreement and recognizing Iran as
a principal source of energy for Europe - all this
against Iran's pledge to stop some nuclear
activities, above all enriching uranium.
Iran would have to make a "binding
commitment" not to pursue fuel-cycle activities
other than the construction and operation of light
water power and research reactors, stop work at
the heavy water reactor in Arak "because such
reactors would add to concerns about nuclear
proliferation", remain in the nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and approve the
Additional Protocol to the NPT by the end of the
current year.
Iran accepted the protocol -
which stipulates that international nuclear
experts and inspectors can visit at any time, on
short notice, any nuclear site, installation or
project without restriction - during a meeting in
Tehran in October 2003 between Iran's top
negotiator Hasan Rohani and the EU-3. But it was
not approved by the majlis (parliament), and the
new one, controlled by conservatives, has said it
will refuse to do so until the Europeans accept
Iran's position.
Tehran says it is not
afraid of the UN, hoping that Russia, its major
nuclear partner which is building Iran's first
nuclear-powered reactor in the Persian Gulf port
of Bushehr, will veto any move to apply sanctions.
Russian officials have already indicated
that the Iranian nuclear issue is not a matter for
the Security Council as it does not present a
danger to peace and security in the world.
Iran has always insisted that the
suspension of enriching uranium - the most
important step in producing nuclear energy that
can be used for both civilian and military
purposes - is "a voluntarily measure taken for a
certain period of time to build confidence with
the international community". Iran says that it
has no intention to build nuclear weapons and that
all its nuclear projects are for civilian use,
mostly to produce electricity.
But the US,
Israel and some European nations are adamant,
accusing the ruling Iranian ayatollahs of wanting
atomic weapons for the destruction of the Jewish
state.
Ahmadinejad, in his confirmation
statement last week, and also later when he took
an oath in the majlis, avoided entering directly
into the nuclear minefield, concentrating instead
on domestic issues. "Our people have many
problems, in private life, job, employment, the
imbalance between revenues and expenses, the
troops of educated youngsters who cannot find
work, etc. If we can find solutions to these
problems, most of the difficulties our nation face
would be solved," he said.
"We want peace
and justice for all, in the region and in the
world. Some governments have been trying to
deprive our nation from its legitimate right. Such
an attitude creates resistance in people and helps
a government supported by the people to stand up
to foreign provocations," Ahmadinejad told
cheering lawmakers, the majority of them
pro-conservatives. "I don't understand why some
countries do not want to understand this fact,
that Iranian people do not tolerate force."
Diplomats in Vienna believe that the
coming to power of a man who wants to revive
principles from the 1979 Islamic revolution might
encourage hardliners in the ruling establishment
to follow the path of North Korea, which has close
nuclear and missile-producing cooperation with the
Islamic republic.
"This might be a theory
explaining the sudden intransigence, if not
bellicose attitude, of Tehran vis-a-vis the
Europeans, but the similarities are very few and
far between the two regimes. In the North Korean
crisis, the United States is a direct party,
Pyongyang is talking directly to the Americans,
despite all their antagonism. But in the case of
Iran, Europe is leading the dance, with the
Americans sitting on the side seat. North Korea
has no regard for the international community,
while Iran wants to be recognized as a major
regional player," explained Therese Delpech,
director of strategic affairs at the French Atomic
Energy Commissariat, in the French center-right
newspaper Le Figaro.
In Tehran, the
hardline daily Keyhan, which usually reflects the
views of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,
said on Sunday that Iran was not in fact a
signatory to the NPT, and criticized the
authorities for having allowed the IAEA and the
Europeans to deny Iran nuclear technologies.
"The Non-Proliferation Treaty was approved
by the United Nations General Assembly at its 1968
session for 25 years. Iran's former regime joined
the treaty and the majlis approved the decision.
At the end of the treaty's 25 years in 1993, its
status became permanent, which the Islamic
republic accepted, but the majlis did not approve.
Therefore, one can assume that Iran is not a
member of the NPT any more since, according to the
constitution, to be official, membership must be
approved by the majlis."
Safa
Haeri is a Paris-based Iranian journalist
covering the Middle East and Central Asia.
(Copyright 2005 Asia Times Online Ltd.
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