Credible Diplomatic Approaches

In its recent report the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) discourages Israel of planning and conducting an air strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities in Natanz and Esfahan similar to that of Iraq’s Osirak reactor in June 1981 and the Al Kibar site in Syria last September. The two main reasons are Iran’s largely dispersed, advanced gas centrifuge facilities and profound lack of knowledge of what Iran can presently master in its uranium enrichment program. The report clearly states that any strike, unlikely to entirely destroy any facilities, would only prompt Iran to hasten its efforts to acquire nuclear weapons. In that case, Iran would certainly withdraw from the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) and expel the IAEA inspectors. The report also speculates that Iran may clandestinely have removed key centrifuge components, equipment and materials from Natanz and the uranium conversion facilities in Esfahan already to other hidden places for example in the nearby mountains. The report states that even the IAEA does not have sufficient information with regard to where the gas centrifuge components for P1, IR-1 and IR-2 are manufactured.

The crux with Iran here is that it has halted its voluntary adherence to the Additional Protocol of the NPT in early 2006 limiting the access to its nuclear facilities. So, the IAEA would again only be informed about a new nuclear facility about six months before nuclear material is produced. Hence, the suspiciousness of Israel, the US and other Western powers may in fact be justified.

Included in the ISIS report are satellite images of possible target sites of facilities involved in the manufacture of centrifuges in Tehran, Esfahan and near Mashhad. According to the report, some of them are very small companies or workshops with not more than 10 employees, or even father and son enterprises.

The report concludes that “Iran is understandably concerned that more transparency on its part could lead to the US and Israeli militaries getting better targeting (!) information.” It is self-evident that Iran has to adhere again as soon as possible to the Additional Protocol of the NPT in order to make claims credible that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only. On the other site, discussions about possible military attacks (“all options”) must come to an end.

“It is time to set aside the military option and concentrate instead on credible diplomatic approaches to end Iran’s growing nuclear weapons capabilities.”



First published at Freelance.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lady Shatita

Image
In order to learn more about Shi’a Islam and the piety of ordinary people it would have been most helpful to visit at least some of the plenty of Emamzadehs (holy sites) all over Iran. So, it was a most welcome opportunity and, in fact, great honor when my Kuwaiti friends invited me to accompany them on their several bus trips in Khorasan on the occasion of their 2006 pilgrimage to the Holy City of Mashhad. Achaemenid, Parthian, and Sasanian Empires each embraced half of the then known world when they climaxed. And even when Iran was under the reign of Seleucids, Arabs, Seljuks, or Mongols, the Iranians imprinted their lifestyle and culture on the non-welcome invaders, who in any sense immensely benefited. So, the austere new religion Islam, which replaced Iran’s state religion Zoroastrianism, was fundamentally reorganized, and, as I see it as an outsider, filled with life. The rapid and shocking decline of the Sasanid Empire at the end of a century-long fight with Byzantium, and the ...
Read more

Persianization

Image
Kuwait’s Arab Times had attracted my attention to Esfahan’s gorgeous Great Mosque in an article in 2003. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find so far a webpage of the article which praised the wonders of Iran’s largest mosque and one of the most significant and finest buildings of the Islamic world. I visited the site the first time at my second trip to Esfahan in late spring of 2004. I took some pictures in the vast courtyard, soaked the peaceful atmosphere there, and watched the few visitors from Iran and elsewhere. I had forgotten about the many details of the article and faintly had read some of the notes in my travel guide. My second visit in late 2007 was driven by scientific interest. I had recently posted (at Freelance ) my rather amateurish studies and thoughts about a suggested ‘conceptual breakthrough’ in Islamic architecture and art in the late 15th century, i.e., quasi-crystalline tessellations, which had led to world-wide attention due to its publication in the Science magazine...
Read more

Buyid Architecture in Esfahan

Image
Older than what is now visible in Esfahan’s Great Mosque (although the first mosque there was built in the 7th century) is what has remained of the Jurjir Mosque . The fragmentary façade of the Jurjir Mosque had been discovered during restoration work at Masjed-e Hakim in 1955. The fragment had been hidden for centuries behind a mud wall. The beautiful Hakim mosque itself is a Safavid mosque from the 17th century. The Jurjir façade is the only remains of a 10th century mosque which was commissioned by the Buyid (Buwayhid) vizier Al-Sahib ibn Abbad (d. 995), a Mutazilite scholar. The Buyid Dynasty, who ruled in Iraq and Iran, effectively brought the Abbasids era in Baghdad to an end. Although the Abbasids retained the caliphate, they were deprived of all secular power. Buyids were originally Zaydi, or Fiver Shi'as. They later began to lean closer to the nowadays dominating Twelver Shi'a branch of Islam. In general tolerant in religious matters, the Buyid rulers in Baghdad even ...
Read more