Iran In Nuclear Sanctions Warning
Iran in nuclear sanctions warning
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4140258.stm
8/10/2005
Iran has warned it would be a "grave miscalculation" for the US and EU to refer Tehran to the UN Security Council over its nuclear programme.
The warning came after Iran broke UN seals at its nuclear plant at Isfahan, making it fully operational.
EU countries have proposed a resolution to the UN nuclear watchdog in Vienna calling for Iran to halt work.
But Iran's chief negotiator at the talks there said Tehran had an absolute right to produce nuclear fuel.
Cyrus Nasseri told the BBC's Newsnight programme that talks with the EU to continue a suspension of its uranium conversion work had broken down.
Dismissing the EU's proposals of economic and political concessions as a "package of lollipops", Mr Nasseri said: "We do not for the moment have much hope in the talks whether now or in the future."
'Disregard'
The BBC's Emma Jane Kirby in Vienna says the US and Britain are now calling for tough action against Iran.
She says that although Iran has not broken international law by resuming conversion work, the West believes it has certainly broken the spirit of the Vienna talks.
Matthew Boland, spokesman of the US Mission to the UN in Vienna, said: "Today's breaking of seals is yet another sign of Iran's disregard of international concerns."
Mr Nasseri rejected the criticism. "It is absolutely wrong to consider that only a few states in the world, the US and a few states in Europe, plus Russia, should have the exclusivity producing fuel."
The breaking of the seals at Isfahan took place under the supervision of the IAEA, which has installed equipment to monitor activity.
The resolution the EU drafted in response is scheduled to be heard at a meeting of the IAEA's 35-nation board in Vienna on Thursday.
It is thought the resolution does not yet call for Iran's actions to be referred to the UN Security Council.
Mr Nasseri said: "I think that would be a grave miscalculation by the US and particularly by Europe to move towards the path of confrontation.
"There is no legal base whatsoever to go to the Security Council. If it is, it is by political choosing and it will be big, big mistake."
Sanctions
The EU and US suspect Iran's scheme is a cover for a nuclear weapons programme.
The West could call for sanctions on the grounds that Iran hid its uranium enrichment programme for 18 years.
Mr Nasseri admitted Iran had been "a bit cautious on our transparency... otherwise [our programme] would have been devastated by the intrusive actions of the Americans".
The Isfahan plant is Iran's main uranium conversion facility.
Conversion is an early stage in the nuclear fuel cycle, turning raw uranium - known as yellowcake - into the feedstock for enriched uranium.
Uranium enriched to a low level is used to produce nuclear fuel, while further enrichment makes it suitable for use in atomic weapons.
Read the Treaty! FACTS: Iran has the right to a non-military nuclear program
Read the Treaty!
FACTS: Iran has the right to a non-military nuclear program; and the United States Is in flagrant violation of the NPT
by Michael Dawson
The United States' attack on Iran has begun. The administration of George W. Bush, merely the latest demagogue in charge of domestically marketing the unchanging policies of our outdated, reactionary ruling class, has commenced its media campaign accusing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the newly seated president of Iran, of being merely the latest demagogue in charge of domestically marketing the unchanging policies of Iran?s outdated, reactionary ruling class. One of those Iranian policies, claim Bush and the corporate media, is Iran's violation of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Everybody who is worried about these dire developments should read the text of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. It is available on the internet at <http://www.iaea.org/Publications/Documents/Treaties/npt.html>.
Now, I don?t know whether Iran, like our allies Israel and Pakistan, has or is violating the treaty's ban on diverting nuclear fuels into weapons programs. That question, of course, is perfectly answerable by the very inspections designated in the treaty.
What I do know from reading the treaty is two facts I believe we need to do as much as possible to publicize. These are:
Fact #1: Iran Has the Right to a Non-Military Nuclear Program
Clause 1 of Article IV of the NPT reads:
"Nothing in this Treaty shall be interpreted as affecting the inalienable right of all the Parties to the Treaty to develop research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes without discrimination and in conformity with Articles I and II of this Treaty."
I've been closely reading newspapers and carefully watching CNN on this issue for a week, and not once have I seen this simple treaty clause reprinted, paraphrased, or even admitted as a true fact. I don't think the reason is mysterious: The American people are now being brainwashed to believe that this treaty language does not exist.
Fact #2: The United States Is in Flagrant Violation of the NPT
Article VI of the Non-Proliferation Treaty reads as follows:
"Each of the Parties to the Treaty undertakes to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament, and on a treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control."
This is NPT language. The United States is an NPT signatory. The United States has long thumbed its nose at this Article, and continues to do so, while simultaneously seeking to use the NPT as a club against another nation-state, against which it is now talking about using "tactical" nuclear weapons, if and when it once again decides to launch an illegal "preemptive" war.
Tell everybody you know about these two facts, and beg them to read the treaty themselves. The clock is ticking.
Michael Dawson works for pay as a paralegal and sociology teacher in Portland, Oregon. He is presently writing a book, Automobiles Ueber Alles: Corporate Capitalism and Transportation in America, forthcoming from Monthly Review Press. He was a member of the Nuclear Freeze Movement of the early 1980s.
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/dawson110805.html
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