IRAN: Noam Chomsky says Americans support Iran's right to nuclear energy

The scholar and leftist political activist Noam Chomsky says his fellow countrymen support Iran's nuclear enrichment program and oppose any kind of military confrontation with the Islamic Republic.

Chomsky, a noted linguistics professor who is among the most outspoken American critics of U.S. foreign policy, spoke in an interview with Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency. The 80-year-old scholar and Massachussets resident was in Berlin:

"Now nobody thinks they have the right to develop nuclear weapons, however that's a different issue. But the majority of the [American] population agrees [on Iran's right to enrich uranium]. ... Public opinion here overwhelmingly holds that Iran should have the right to develop nuclear energy."

Mastering the enrichment of uranium is a key step toward building either a peaceful nuclear energy program or creating a homegrown atomic-bomb industry. The U.S., Israel and Europe accuse Iran of exploiting loopholes in international arms-control regulations to build nuclear-weapons capability. Iran has strongly denied the charge.

Chomsky is enormously popular in the Middle East, where his books are widely sold and translated. His critiques of U.S. Middle East policy are a huge hit with Iranians and Arabs.

In the interview published today, he said the U.S. had flubbed chances to improve relations and understanding between Tehran and Washington:

"With regard to Iran, a substantial segment of pretty mainstream opinion has been harshly critical of the confrontational approach and has called for negotiations and diplomacy. ... It did not happen because the extremism of the Bush administration was simply directed at making relations harsher, more bitter, militarizing them, and that's why the Bush administration even antagonized allies."

He criticized Western media for characterizing Iran's continued insistence on enriching uranium as a matter of concern for the entire world. "That's a funny definition of the 'world,' " he told the Islamic Republic News Agency. "The Non-Aligned Movement, for example, which is the majority of countries, endorses Iran's right to enrich uranium."

Iran policy has been a relatively major campaign issue in the presidential race between John McCain and Barack Obama. Recently, a committee of mostly neoconservative scholars and politicians published a 117-page paper called "Meeting the Challenge," which argues for stronger sanctions or military confrontation as a way of ending Iran's enrichment program.

But Chomsky voiced optimism that the confrontation between Iran and the U.S. would be solved peacefully. "There is a strong establishment pressure ... moving toward a diplomatic and developmental approach rather than a military approach," he said. "The American popular opinion is strongly in support of it."

-- Borzou Daragahi in Beirut

Photo: Noam Chomsky. Credit: First Run Features

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Comments

[E.T]

were are all you people at, outer space?? my god man , iran wants to anialate israel and the us. chomsky is way far far far left. wake up America , Israel is doing our leg work right now for the right for us and them to exist!!!!!!!!!! America stands with you Israel.....

[AJ]

Noam Chomsky is really a favor to Americans and I don't think we realize it. Time after time he's dead on and this time is no different. I wish I spoke better Arabic so I could go on more websites to let others know how I feel. Especially in light of what Israel has done recently, they don't care about human life except their own, how else can you justify hundreds dead because of individual deaths? From a humanitarian standpoint, it doesn't make a difference if it's 100:1 Palestinians to Israelis(which is is) these are innocent people being killed. I hope the Israeli government burns in hell.

[Twiggs]

Sorry friends. Just because your zionist adherance to repressing any non-Amercian states governs your will doesn't mean the rest of America must bend over to propaganda machines. Iran is an intelligent, autonomous country that should be treated like an adult and not a child in order to form good relations and foster good feeling and prosperity. Such is the way to peace, not enforcing consent from your leather chair. GO WORLD!

[theradicalmormon]

Zaid and Mark,
Did you not notice that Chomsky said, "Now nobody thinks they have the right to develop nuclear weapons, however that's a different issue. But the majority of the [American] population agrees [on Iran's right to enrich uranium]. ... Public opinion here overwhelmingly holds that Iran should have the right to develop nuclear energy."?

Uranium enrichment is a right we give all nations. Even the most dangerous nation on the earth... the only one to threaten other countries with nuclear weapons in the last decade or so... the only country to use depleted uranium in weapons... the USA... has the right to enrich uranium. Why shouldn't Iran? I believe Chomsky is right. Chomsky doesn't fall off the map. Read a little of his stuff and you'll see where he's coming from. He's never been wrong on foreign policy issues.

[Zaid]

"Noam you are SO far to the left you fall off the political map. Americans as a group DO NOT SUPPORT Iran's quest for an atomic bomb and hopefully Israel will act soon to flatten their nuclear enrichment facilities. GO ISRAEL!!"

Did you not read his statement as a whole? He said we don't support them getting a bomb but we do support peaceful nuclear energy. Try some reading comprehension!

[Mark Montgomery]

Noam you are SO far to the left you fall off the political map. Americans as a group DO NOT SUPPORT Iran's quest for an atomic bomb and hopefully Israel will act soon to flatten their nuclear enrichment facilities. GO ISRAEL!!

[Ziggy]

Chomsky is right. This nonsense that the US regime spouts about the "world" and "international community" being against Iran's nuclear program is just lies. There are 192 nations in the UN and 130 in the Non-Aligned Movement alone that support Iran's nuclear program. I have counted at least 160 nations that hold that view. Iran has every right under the NPT to enrich uranium and as long as Iran has the legal right to enrich uranium, those resolutions and sanctions are illegal. It's time for the Americans to stop their warmongering, disinformation, propaganda and outright lies.