IRAN: A press summary of nuclear defiance

The U.S., Europe and other powers hope to get Iran to stop its uranium enrichment program by offering it a package of economic and security incentives.

But judging by recent murmurs in the Iranian press, the conservatives now dominating Iran’s political and security establishment don’t sound like they’re ready to deal.

On the contrary, the right-wing Iranian press has a struck a triumphant tone and dismissed any compromise over the nuclear program, which the leadership of the Islamic Republic is trying to embed into the country’s national identity.

By now most everyone knows the broad outlines of the conflict between Tehran and the rest of the world over Iran's nuclear program. Iran insists it is creating its own nuclear fuel and building other atomic infrastructure as part of a peaceful energy program. The U.S., Europe and Israel suspect Iran is trying to master nuclear technology to build atomic weapons somewhere down the line. There's been a lot of diplomatic back and forth as Iran continues to build up its nuclear program.

European officials hope they can convince Iran it's in its best interests to stop enriching uranium.  But here’s the conservative Resalat newspaper on Wednesday regarding the reaction of the West to Iran’s recent push to expand its uranium enrichment capacity:

The defeated and depressed rulers of the West were calculating the cost of their failures in dealing with Iran's nuclear victory. In the current sensitive situation both the West and Iran have reached the point of no return, but there is big difference between the two sides. Iran has reached the point of no return in its nuclear achievements and cannot backtrack from its progress, while the West has reached the point of confessing its defeat in confronting Iran.

Not too encouraging. Any Iranian compromise on its nuclear program seems foolish to the conservative Jam-e-Jam, another daily paper:

It has now been proven that the policy of making concessions and compromising with the West cannot solve any of our problems, but may whet Western appetite to become more demanding. Insisting on our legitimate rights will make our enemies recognize Iran's legitimate rights.

And the hard-line daily Siyasat-e-Ruz takes it a step further. It ignores the international outcry, United Nations Security Council Resolutions and growing worldwide isolation of Iran over its nuclear program and hails it as an achievement for all of humanity:

By acquiring local nuclear technology,the Islamic Republic of Iran has found a new firm position not only in the region but also in the international community. Iran has foiled Western attempts to monopolize the production of nuclear fuel in the world, which is a big achievement for the international community.

Views expressed in the press don’t necessarily reflect the views of Iranian officials in charge of the country’s foreign policy or nuclear program. But they can’t be brushed aside as idle chatter either. The right-wing papers are known to be close to factions within the ruling establishment.

— Borzou Daragahi in Beirut

Photo: A picture released by the official presidential website shows Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, right, inspecting the Natanz nuclear plant in central Iran on March 8, 2007. Credit: OFFICIAL HANDOUT

Comments

[Peter Noordijk]

Iran had an active nuclear weapons program in 2003. Now that the US finally shared the intel, even the IAEA has issued concern. That is a violation of their obligations under the NPT. They agreed with the EU to the additional protocols in Geneva, they have failed to implement those protocols. They maintain an active support of Hezbollah and other unofficial proxy forces. So I'm sorry but they have a pretty established history of violating international norms, and they happen to be following the same path as other countries that have established a nuclear weapons program, the exception being that Pakistan, Israel, India and S. Africa were never NPT members. But this is exactly the path followed by North Korea. SO if you want to wake up to an Iran-Saudi -Israeli-turkish-Egyptian nuclear arms race, by all means keep excusing their obstructionism. The presence of a nuclear armed middle east should help us all rest easy.

[reza]

I am really disappointed in the report that keeps regurgitating western government and media lies about Iran's nuclear program. For example, the report repeats " conflict between Tehran and the rest of the world over Iran's nuclear program". The reporter either does not understand (highly unlikely) or for the sake of keeipng his job, feels that he must keep repeating these lies. Iran's position is NOT versus the rest of the world, but rather vs. U.S. and its western allies and Israel. Any other country voting against Iran has done so at the threat of U.S (western) sanctions (primarily economic and political). Far more nations and people in the world side with Iran on this issue than with western countries especially if are given freedom of choice (the same freedom we want to export to other countries and yet we keep losing it little by little here in america). Go ahead and keep lying.

[Saint Michael Traveler]

Iranian government has invited other nations, including US, to participate in their nuclear fuel cycle production consortium.

To allay the concern that she may divert enrichment process, Iran has invited other nations to participate as members of Iranian consortium for production of nuclear fuel. Iran is a member of Non-Proliferation Treaty of the United Nations, and thus subject to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) regulations.

IAEA is responsible to demonstrate compliance with NPT requirements by inspection, on site active and remote monitoring of all aspects of the operation. Presence of non-Iranian scientists participating in the consortium would deter unauthorized enrichment activities. Iran would accept additional protocol for IAEA inspection.

IAEA has indicated that Iran is in compliance with the NPT requirements; we want Iran to stay in compliance in the future. We must not create conditions that force Iran to develop nuclear bomb for defense.

Unless we could suggest a better procedure than an international consortium in Iran, we should join Iranian Consortium.

Saint Michael Traveler
http://straveler-myamerica.blogspot.com/

[Count Iblis]

Absent any hard evidence that Iran has a nuclear weapons program in violation of the NPT, we really have to ask ourselves a few questions:

Who is exactly defying who here? How can it be that mere suspicions lead to Security Council resolutions under Chapter 7 that are normally reserved when there is a threat to international peace and security?

What do we make of Dr. Rice's comments to El Baradei that his task is to check if Iran is complying with the Security Council demands, even if in his opinion they don't seem necessary to verify Iran's peaceful intentions.

We also have to consider that high level Iranian officials know the nature of their own nuclear program. Suppose that it is really peaceful. Then the statements that US officials repeatedly make that the Iranian nuclear program is not peaceful will only cause anger.

The core of the problem is thus simply that the West has too much power. Without very strong institutions that can limit that power you get a dictatorial system. The Security Council does not act like a democratically elected parliament. It can perhaps best be compared to a Supreme Soviet on issues the US feels strongly about (e.g. France's opposition to the Iraq war led to a crisis in US-French relations, despite the fact that France was simply intent on exercising its legitimate right to vote against the war).

A dictator must ultimately rely on force to implement his will if his threats are ignored. In case of Iran, it seems unlikely that military force can do much more than delaying their nuclear program (centrifuges can be stored anywhere in the country so it is virtually impossible to destroy the centrifuge technology they already have developed)

Iran's defiance may therefore lead to the downfall of the West's position as the World's Dictator. Perhaps if Obama is elected president of the US, we may see real negotiatons with Iran in which the West stops making demands to Iran and simply discusses the issues. The outcome could e.g. be that Iran agrees to more inspections in return for the West recognizing Iran's right to enrich uranium.

[Jon McCormick]

Here is the video of Ahmadinejad's recent nuclear announcement of 6000 centrifuges:

http://irannegah.com/Video.aspx?id=596