Lessons from Iran

Lessons from Iran
By Salama A Salama
al-Ahram Weekly, 22 - 28 September 2005

Arab countries press on with their petty squabbles and the world moves on. In recent UN meetings the US and the EU III (UK, France and Germany) have gone out of their way to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power. This is because they don't want any country to challenge Israel in this part of the world. Consequently, a showdown between Iran and the US is in the offing.

The European troika has failed to persuade Tehran to freeze its nuclear activities in return for trade and other incentives. Iran is defending its right to produce enriched uranium, a right upheld by various international agreements, including the Nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty, and says its nuclear programme is peaceful. So far it's been a stalemate. Iran says it will continue to produce enriched uranium but is ready to accept monitoring of such activities to allay international fears. The US, for its part, says that Iran should not be allowed to produce enriched uranium because it will use it for nuclear weapons. This is nothing more than a conjecture, though the US is using it to pressure Iran, blackmail Gulf states and rally Europe, Russia and China to its side.

The US does not want Iran -- a country that opposes US policies in the Gulf, Iraq and Palestine -- to acquire nuclear leverage. For the past few years, Tehran has managed to stay ahead of the US-Israeli game. It has proposed that the entire region, including Israel, be turned into a nuclear-free zone. It is a demand Egypt has made repeatedly and one the US and Europe reject for obvious reasons. It would make perfect sense for Egypt to coordinate its position with Iran on this point yet inexplicably it has not done so.

For all the uproar over Iran's nuclear programme the International Atomic Energy Agency has regularly inspected the country's nuclear facilities and found no evidence of weapon-related activities. The Iranians say they need nuclear-generated electricity to resolve the worsening problem of pollution. In recent UN meetings Iranian President Ahmadinejad has insisted Iran has every right to produce nuclear energy. The only concession he offered was that US and European companies could take part in developing Iran's nuclear programmes.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, spokesman of the European Troika, rejected the Iranian gesture out of hand. Behind their rejection lies the threat that the issue will be referred to the UN Security Council, a not so subtle hint that Iran stands to face the same fate as Saddam Hussein's Iraq. But the Iranians are standing their ground. They know the US administration is in no position to repeat its Iraq adventure and cannot justify taking military action on the basis of claims that Iran is developing weapons of mass destruction when they have been shown to be false in the case of Iraq. Iran is firm but careful. No bravado, just the facts.

Strangely enough, Arab countries have offered Iran no support. Arab countries are at an obvious disadvantage because of Israel's status as the region's only nuclear power yet Arab and Islamic countries -- including Pakistan, Indonesia, and Qatar -- are bending over backwards to please Israel. This doesn't make sense. If there is anything to learn from the current international scene it is that meekness gets you nowhere. We have much to learn from Iran and North Korea.