Americans attending a nuclear conference in Tehran this weekend will get a chance to assess whether a breakthrough over Iran's uranium enrichment program is still possible -- as well as a sense of how fractured society there is 10 months after the disputed presidential election.
The conference, dubbed "Nuclear Energy for All, Nuclear Weapons for No One," was planned months ago and is similar to Foreign Ministry events there in past years, but now seems intended to compete with a period of intense, U.S.-led nuclear diplomacy.
Saeed Jalili, Iran's top nuclear negotiator, told reporters in Tehran recently that Iran is holding the conference because it supports "global disarmament" and "invites the world to disarm and prevent proliferation."
It follows U.S. President Barack Obama's nuclear summit in Washington this week and the release of his administration's new Nuclear Posture Review (pdf), which retains the option "in extreme circumstances" of a U.S. nuclear attack on countries such as Iran and North Korea that are viewed as not in compliance with their international nuclear obligations.
COMMENTS (2)
More...
Whereas North Korea withdrew in 2003 from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and has twice tested nuclear weapons, Iran insists it has done nothing wrong and seeks nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. However, it has been the object of three U.N. Security Council resolutions -- and probably soon a fourth -- for failing to explain suspicious activities. Last September, Obama revealed that Iran had been building a nuclear enrichment facility in a mountain near Qom -- a fact that Iran did not disclose to the International Atomic Energy Agency until it knew that the plant had been detected by foreign intelligence.
Jim Walsh, a nonproliferation expert from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who is attending the Tehran meeting, said it was originally planned to give Iran a platform to put forward its position in advance of a review of the NPT at the United Nations in May.
Since he was invited in January, however, he said "the title has changed and the guest list has changed and things have become a bit more rhetorical. They are particularly steamed by the Nuclear Posture Review."
Indeed, because of its reference to a possible nuclear strike on Iran, that document appears to have handed Iran a public relations tool with which to try to deflect criticism of its uranium enrichment program.
SUBJECTS:
(2)
HIDE COMMENTS LOGIN OR REGISTER REPORT ABUSE