Iran can resolve nuclear crisis if acts wisely

In about one month’s time Iran, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, known as the P5, and Germany, will meet in Baghdad after the first round of ten hours of talks this past week in Turkey.

While the talks in Istanbul did not produce anything concrete, they nevertheless generated some optimism. The talks were billed as “constructive and useful” by Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s foreign policy chief.

As expected, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the meeting a “freebie” for Iran, accusing the international community of allowing Tehran to buy more time, at least five weeks in this case, to enrich their uranium. 

While the world welcomed the talks with cautious optimism, Israel has made it known that these talks do not mean that Iran is exempt from a military strike. 

 

 

What obama said

US President Barack Obama, on the other hand, quickly dismissed Netanyahu’s remarks, saying Iran will face some of the toughest sanctions they have yet to see if they don’t take advantage of these talks. 

Perhaps this is not the time to be beating war drums, especially when Tehran is showing signs that it is willing to, in the words of Iran’s Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, resolve the nuclear dispute “quickly and easily”.

Tehran has hinted that it has a new offer to put on the table for the next meeting. 

Iran knows that it is in a tight corner and needs to be given time to breathe, especially when things are moving in a positive direction. 

Stuck between a possible air-strike from Israel and an oil embargo set to take effect in July, Tehran is doing some serious soul searching. 

Details about the Istanbul meeting were not made public, so it is difficult to judge the success in concrete terms. But the fact that the two sides have agreed to meet again on May 23 in Iraq is a welcome sign, indeed.

 

 

Pressure on all sides

The pressure will be on all sides to produce something concrete when they meet again in a month’s time. Pressing matters at this juncture is the need to get Iran to cooperate in a meaningful way with the International Atomic Energy Agency and to stop enriching uranium to 20 per cent purity, which is more or less one step away from bomb grade. 

Iran is calling for the lifting of sanctions but Ashton is correct to call for a “step-by-step approach and reciprocity” if Tehran lives up to its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, including a promise to forgo nuclear weapons.

The treaty permits Iran to enrich uranium if more intrusive monitoring measures can ensure that the uranium is not converted so it can be used in bombs. 

The UN and the P5 are not demanding that Iran permanently end its uranium enrichment. UN resolutions call on Iran to suspend uranium enrichment for the time being in order to put to rest a growing fear from the international community that Tehran is working on a nuclear bomb. 

But in the final analysis, the world can, as pointed out by the UN resolutions, live with an Iranian nuclear program that is exclusively for peaceful purposes. 

Hardliners in the West and other parts of the Middle East hate the idea of Iran with a nuclear program, but perhaps they should take a good look at their own arsenals and subject themselves to the same kind of standards they are demanding of countries they don’t like.

Indeed, Iran has some tough decision to make and time is running out before the oil embargo kicks in. Tehran can dispel strong doubts in the international community and prove the world wrong by taking steps as outlined by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. There is still time for all sides to exit this fiasco with their heads held high. 

Diplomacy has not been exhausted and the international community must remain united on their attempt to defuse the risk of further escalation.