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Ireland's political and cultural magazine
— village November - December 2009
soon be imposed on
Tehran by the “Iran Six” (US, Russia, France,
Britain, China, Germany). Some Western gov-
ernments claim that Iran is attempting to build
a nuclear weapon and must therefore be pre-
vented from enriching uranium, which can be
used to make bombs. Tehran maintains that
its nuclear programme is peaceful and so won’t
suspend enrichment, which can also be used for
civilian applications. Who is right? After thou-
sands of hours of inspections, the International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) still has not
found any credible evidence that Iran is work-
ing on a nuclear weapon. This has been reiter-
ated time and again in IAEA reports, and even
American intelligence agrees - in its November
National Intelligence Estimate it judged
with “high confi dence” that Tehran “halted its
nuclear weapons program” in , and with
“moderate confi dence” that the programme had
not been restarted. Newsweek reported some
weeks ago that this view still holds.
Of course, no one can predict which direc-
tion the Iranian programme will take in the
future. One could raise the possibility that
Iran is hiding some sort of military nuclear
programme, in reaction to, say, Israel’s
nuclear arsenal, or the presence of US troops
right on its borders. Or, Iran may be seeking
“nuclear latency”, that is, the possession of a
nuclear energy programme that would allow
the production of an atomic bomb on short
notice. The construction of a new uranium
enrichment facility near the city of Qom,
miles south of Tehran, has generated a fl urry
of accusations from Western politicians. But
the facts are that it will soon be inspected and
that no evidence has so far been produced to
prove that it hides a military programme.
Nevertheless, Iran’s nuclear installations
should be closely monitored. However, let’s
keep in mind that some other countries’ activi-
ties are much more alarming.
First, States that have nuclear weapons still
have not eliminated them, although it is their
obligation under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty (NPT). That means that the US, Britain,
France, Russia and China are all in serious breach
of international law. So why don’t we have an
American nuclear crisis instead of an Iranian
one? Second, Western allies such as Israel,
Pakistan and India have not even joined the NPT
but are nevertheless off ered much protection
and help in developing their own nuclear weap-
ons contrary to Iran, which doesn’t have a single
nuke. So why don’t we have an Israeli nuclear cri-
sis instead of an Iranian one? The United Nations
recently voted on a resolution urging all States
in the Middle East to foreswear nuclear weap-
ons and create a “Nuclear Weapons Free Zone”
in the Middle East. The vote was in favour,
against (Israel)—and the US abstained, ensur-
ing the resolution would carry no force. So Israel
remains the sole nuclear power in the region, but
somehow it is Iran that is labelled “rogue”.
Another point: we often hear in the media
that “Iran is defying the international commu-
nity” or “Iran is defying the world”. But the fact
is that most of the world supports Iran’s right
to enrich uranium and opposes sanctions. The
Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), which com-
prises nations (about two thirds of UN
Member states) supports Iran’s right to enrich
uranium and favours diplomacy to resolve the
crisis. In a declaration last year it stressed
“that the only way to resolve the issue is to pur-
sue substantive negotiations without any pre-
conditions among all relevant parties. Lula,
the President of Brazil, recently urged Western
leaders to talk to Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad, “I think Obama should talk to
him… Stop punishing him”. A majority of peo-
ple across the world also oppose sanctions and
military strikes on Iran, according to a major
BBC poll released last year. Surveying ,
people in countries, it found that even if
Iran continues to produce nuclear fuel, %
favour using only diplomacy on Iran; only %
favour economic sanctions, and % a military
strike. But Western governments apparently
don’t consider the NAM and the world’s pop-
ulation to be part of ‘the world’ or ‘the inter-
national community’. So, they can claim
arrogantly that Tehran is defying ‘the world’
if it refuses to obey them. Nuclear weapons
are dangerous and outrageous and should be
eliminated. President Obama won the Nobel
Peace prize partly in acknowledgement of his
commitment to this agenda. Meanwhile, a
good place to start would be for nuclear rogue
states like the US, Israel, France and Britain
to destroy their arsenals.
Julien Mercille is lecturer in US foreign policy and geopolitics at
UCD: julien.mercille@ucd.ie
Middle East
Most of the world is unexercised by Tehran’s uranium enrichment
programme – while Israel, US, Britain, France, Russia and China are
all in serious breach of international law.
j u l i e n m e r c i l l e
“After thousands
of hours of
inspections, the
International
Atomic Energy
Agency still has not
found any credible
evidence that Iran
is working on a
nuclear weapon.”
Nuclear Rogue: The US. The UK. China. France. Russia.
Israel. Pakistan. India. Iran?
PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
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