Iran Shouts “Nuclear Apartheid”
- 05.09.2008 - 9:51 AMOn Monday, Iran’s Ali Asghar Soltanieh said Tehran would not submit to extensive U.N. inspections of its nuclear program while Israel refuses to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Iran is a signatory to the NPT, as the global pact is called, and, as such, is not permitted to build or hold nuclear weapons. Israel, which maintains a small arsenal of nukes, has not joined the NPT. Citing “nuclear apartheid,” the Iranian diplomat said
The existing double standard shall not be tolerated anymore by non-nuclear-weapon states.
Tehran’s announcement should surprise no one. North Korea raised the nuclear apartheid argument earlier this decade to justify its serial violations of the NPT. After International Atomic Energy Agency inspections revealed that Pyongyang had been secretly experimenting with plutonium, it announced its withdrawal from the treaty in January 2003. There have been reports that North Koreans have been teaching Iranians how to avoid nuclear inspections and deal with the international community. Whether these stories are true or not, Tehran is now obviously following North Korea’s playbook.
So look for Tehran to talk about Israel again and again. There will always be questions about Israel, India, and Pakistan, the three nuclear powers that never signed the NPT. And there are broader fairness issues about the discriminatory nature of the treaty, which permits five nations to possess nukes and prohibits 185 others from doing so. Yet the United States should remind the international community that Iran, while it remains a nuclear criminal, has no standing to raise them.
The mullahs appear to be laying the groundwork for ditching the NPT. “What is the problem with withdrawing from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty?” asked Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, the leader of Iran’s powerful Guardian Council, in 2003. “North Korea withdrew from the treaty.”
So we should start laying groundwork of our own. We need to tell Iran it has no right to withdraw from the NPT until it first complies with its treaty obligations and all the demands of the Security Council that it suspend the enrichment of uranium. The sooner Washington announces this–along with its intentions to use force to back up its demands–the better.
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May 9th, 2008 at 10:04 AM
The Vienna Convention generally allows countries to withdraw from treaties if there is supervening impossibility of performance, or unforeseen fundamental change of circumstance. Iran could easily argue that there has been unforeseen fundamental change in circumstance - the Iranian Revolution, and Israel’s nuclear arsenal.
The NPT and the UN SC are utterly inadequate to deal with the terrifying problems of this era.
May 9th, 2008 at 10:09 AM
Iran is not singled out simply because it does not sign some piece of paper, but because it’s run by madmen with twisted religious ideas who scheme to blow up Israel and other nations at the first opportunity.
May 9th, 2008 at 10:12 AM
Mr. Chang,
Once again your level of intellectual dishonesty is amazing. Iran has no right to withdraw from a voluntary treaty???? So if thats the case, every country in the world once it has signed a treaty abandons the right to withdraw one day from that treaty? I hope this is not a serious argument you are attempting to make.
Second of all, whats the rationale in allowing 5 nations to possess nuclear weapons, and 185 not to possess them. Every country has the right to advance its civilization as far and as fast as possible. The sad part that you don’t mention is that Iran has publicly stated that it does NOT want or have nuclear weapons. it just wants to produce electricity for civilian purposes.
As a lawyer, I hope you know that the burden of proof is not on the accused to prove he is not guilty, but on the accusor to prove he is guilty. Iran does NOT have to do anything to show it does not want nuclear weapons, on the contrary, it is up to the United States to prove that it does want nuclear weapons.
Again, the United States is powerless to stop Iran from advancing to the nuclear age. Iran has already made that leap, there is no point of return. And if iran wants to withdraw from the NPT, it is completely within its right to change its mind.
May 9th, 2008 at 10:14 AM
Bill,
You mean something like President Bush and his Neoconservatives who are guided by religious dogma and attack countries like Iraq for no good reason??? If you mean those people, then I would recommend cleaning house first, before you go imposing your point of view and lifestyle on others.
May 9th, 2008 at 10:31 AM
The US liberated Iraq from the rule of a savage dictator who also planned to reconstitute his WMD program as soon as the West lost its desire to hold him back.
May 9th, 2008 at 10:43 AM
Oh right, the rule of a savage dictator….let me ask you, why don’t you free the people of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Kuwait and the rest of the Middle East from oppression….oh wait, thats because those countries are surrogates to the US and do what you say.
Saddam if you remember was also a surrogate in the 80’s when you gave him weapons, chemical weapons and intelligence when it fought a war against Iran.
Don’t give me talking points Mr. Miller. The only threat to world peace is the US and its foreign policy. If you want to have an intelligent conversation about the facts, then lets do it. if you want to on the other hand spew out BS and lies about why the US invaded Iraq, then by all means, continue, but not on this site please.
May 9th, 2008 at 10:46 AM
Normal people will be able to separate fact from fiction.
May 9th, 2008 at 10:47 AM
Israel built nukes to protect its national interests. Iran is doing the same; not irrational in the light of history.
Meanwhile, the US has done little to limit its own, vastly superior and overblown nuclear arsenal. If I were Iran, liberal or mullahcratic, I’d do exactly the same thing.
Lesson: treaties or no treaties, nation-states do what they conceive to be in their national interest. The dénouement, alas, is sometimes scary.
May 9th, 2008 at 10:54 AM
Very true Grumpy old man,
But, when other countries start having the same technologies as israel, the US quickly tries to stop them because it does not want its main surrogate slave state to lose its military and technological superiority. But alas, all things must come to an end.
May 9th, 2008 at 11:07 AM
Sam,
The sad part that you don’t mention is that Iran has publicly stated that it does NOT want or have nuclear weapons. it just wants to produce electricity for civilian purposes.
You know, since you seem to be in the market, I have this lovely bridge for sale.