THE ROVING EYE A nuclear
(mis)adventure in Isfahan By
Pepe Escobar
ISFAHAN - It is one of the
most sensitive sites in the world, a compound 15
kilometers north of beautiful Isfahan, on a back
road skirting a rocky mountain. The blue panel, in
white lettering, says "Isfahan Nuclear Production
Research Center"/"Atomic Energy Organization of
Iran"/"Nuclear Production
Branch".
Anti-aircraft
guns are strategically positioned along the road,
which is far from the busy Tehran-Isfahan highway.
Security at the main gate consists of only one
uniformed, unarmed official carrying a
walkie-talkie.
It's
5pm on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Everything is
calm, except for a white SUV carrying
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
inspectors waved inside through the main gate.
That's
exactly the problem. They can get in.
We can't.
Looking at the peacock's
tail It had been a very tense day of
waiting and waiting since early in the morning.
Our fixer, tireless Mahmoud Daryadel, had
spent most of it glued to his
mobile, placing and receiving a frantic series of
calls. Three days earlier Ivan Sahar, an official
tied to the Ministry of Culture and Islamic
Guidance, had promised Asia Times Online a visit
to the controversial Isfahan Uranium Conversion
Facility (UCF). Chances of success were evaluated
at "85%". The UCF, one of Iran's key nuclear
sites, is at the center of the Iran-EU-3 (Britain,
France and Germany) nuclear negotiations. It
converts yellowcake - or concentrated uranium
oxide - into a gas that can be enriched to produce
reactor fuel.
We were supposed to receive
a morning call giving the go-ahead for the visit.
The call never came; something was going on; there
was official talk from the management at the
Isfahan site about "obstacles". We had to wait for
clearance. There is hardly a better place in the
world to spend a tense waiting day than the pearl
of Shah Abbas, which in the 17th century reached
its full splendor, impressed in the famous rhyme
Isfahan nesf-e jahan ("Isfahan is half the
world"). By a strange twist of fate, Isfahan in
the early 21st century is now synonymous with
nuclear confrontation.
At Jolfa, the
Armenian quarter, which also dates from the 17th
century, the Vank cathedral is an apotheosis of
mixed Christian and Islamic art. On graceful
Khajoo bridge, which is also a dam, young Iranians
hang out under the arches while families have
picnics on the grass. And then there's the wonder
of reexploring stunning Imam Khomeini Square,
still locally referred to as the Meidun, built in
1612 and one of the largest squares in the world -
the Persian answer to Saint Mark's in Venice.
There's the Imam Mosque, covered, inside
and out, with the trademark Isfahan pale blue and
yellow tiles; the two madrassas
(seminaries); and the Sheikh Lotfollah mosque,
whose dome tiles progressively change color, from
cream to strong pink as the day goes on (and our
crucial call does not come). Inside the mosque,
under the dome, there is a famous painted peacock;
as the light changes, the reflection forming the
peacock's tail also moves. One can spend hours
contemplating this living example of the
architecture of light. Especially when a mobile
ringing tone does not disturb the peace.
At the fabulous bazaar that envelops the
Meidun, Hossein Peyghambary of Nomad carpets,
speaking fluent Spanish, displays the best tribal
patterns straight from villages in Balochistan.
The Cultural Heritage Organization in Iran is
planning to register Iranian nomad's summer
migration - by Balochis, Bakhtiaris, Qashqaiis and
Azeris - on the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization's list of
Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage
of Humanity. As far as Balochi nomad carpets are
concerned, they are hard to beat as tangible
masterpieces themselves.
By mid-afternoon
we have lost almost any hope of getting a permit
for the visit. The back channels try to untangle
the "obstacles" to no avail. It seems a group of
IAEA inspectors showed up impromptu at the UCF;
according to an agreement between the Iranian
government and the UN agency, no journalists may
visit the UCF while there are inspectors on the
premises. This is to prevent any information leak.
Indeed, foreign media are allowed inside the UCF
only in exceptional circumstances.
Finally
we get a call at 4pm: go, someone will meet you on
the way. This doesn't happen, and we have to find
the way by ourselves, with the help of plenty of
Isfahani motorists. As we arrive at the main gate,
we get another last-minute call, from security
inside the plant: you cannot get in. You are only
allowed to film outside. A security guard arrives
in a van to lay down the rules. No filming inside.
No filming the road. No filming of faces. But we
are not TV: we write stories. Makes no difference:
no talking to anybody. Please leave. Exactly on
cue, the white SUV carrying the IAEA inspectors
crosses the main gate.
Hours later, on the
road back to Tehran, we learn that our
(mis)adventure took place exactly as the rules of
the game were being changed in Tehran. So
apparently no one is to blame: there would be no
question of allowing foreign media inside the UCF
at such a delicate juncture.
Time to
make a move Following
the nuclear confrontation from Tehran is like
following a game of chess - a game, by the way,
invented by the Persians. It has become a national
sport - and the recurrent conversation theme on
all occasions. These have been the most recent key
moves:
Hassan Rowhani, the widely respected former
secretary of the Supreme National Security Council
and Iran's former top nuclear negotiator,
dismisses Iran's referral to the UN Security
Council: "If this does happen it will only
indicate that the IAEA has diverted from its legal
path and succumbed to US pressure."
Nuclear spokesman Hussein Musavian stresses
that Iran's decision to resume uranium conversion
at Isfahan is irreversible ("The Isfahan UCF is
not at all related to nuclear weapons
production."), adding that enrichment at the
Natanz plant was still suspended and that Iran
still remains committed to talking to the EU-3.
Iranian officials for their part keep stressing
that work at Isfahan will never be suspended
again.
The EU-3 suspends talks with Iran that should
have taken place this past Wednesday in Paris.
Iranian officials learn that the US is heavily
lobbying the 35-member board of IAEA governors -
especially Russia, China, India and South Africa -
against Iran. The IAEA board is to receive a key
report on Iran this Saturday from IAEA head
Mohammad ElBaradei. None of these four key
countries is keen to send the matter to the UN
Security Council, as the IAEA has not found that
Iran has breached the nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty.
President Mahmud Ahmadinejad announces a new
breakthrough, a constructive proposal to advance
the negotiations. After two days, it's finally
settled that the proposal will be unveiled at the
UN summit in New York on September 14-16 (provided
the US issues a visa to the Iranian president).
Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza
Asefi says that Iran will continue to negotiate
with the EU-3, "but on the other hand we will not
restrict our negotiating partners to just these
three countries", adding that Iran has also been
talking to Japan, Malaysia and South Africa.
Iran's position changes tack: now "it is up to the
Europeans not to remove themselves from the
negotiations". This new directive seems to have
come from a meeting last week between Supreme
Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Ahmadinejad.
Asefi says that Ahmadinejad's new proposal will
"enshrine Iran's right to master the fuel cycle
and will also include objective guarantees" that
Iran is not building nuclear weapons.
New top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani meets
ElBaradei in Vienna and says that negotiations
should not be "exclusive". He accuses countries
mastering the nuclear fuel of trying to create a
fuel cartel like the Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries and stresses that Iran is
against this "nuclear apartheid".
On the day of Asia Times Online's aborted
visit to Isfahan, Tehran announces that its main
interlocutor in the confrontation is not the EU-3
but the IAEA. The EU-3 demands, qualified as
"conditional negotiations", are rejected.
Ahmadinejad reappoints Gholam-Reza Aqazadeh as
head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization. The
former oil minister, from 1985 to 1997, calls the
EU-3 package "a joke".
So the next crucial
steps are ElBaradei's report this Saturday; what
could be the sensational debut of Ahmadinejad on
the world stage, at the UN in New York next week,
delivering a new proposal to end the stalemate;
and the meeting of the 35-member IAEA board of
governors on September 19, which will examine not
only ElBaradei's report but Ahmadinejad's
solution.
Meanwhile, anyone contemplating
a visit to the UCF in Isfahan will have to settle
on contemplating the peacock's tail at Sheikh
Lotfollah's dome.
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THE ROVING EYE
