Targeting Muslim Iran

Source: The Nation, Pakistan
Friday, June 11, 2010
Courtesy Of "Campaign Against Sanctions & Military Interventions In Iran"

THE UN sanctions imposed on Iran by the Security Council on Wednesday highlighted once again the discriminatory approach of the major powers towards the Muslim states. It is unfortunate because such sanctions have never achieved anything positive and all that will happen is that Iran will become more defiant and many states may defy these politically motivated sanctions where the five nuclear powers effectively “ganged up” on Iran, while safeguarding their own economic interests. The Chinese and Russian roles have come as a disappointment because in return for gaining protection for their own trading interests with Iran, they went along with the US-dictated sanctions. The result was a 12 to 2 vote in favour of the sanctions resolution.

Turkey and Brazil voted against the resolution because they had been seeking a diplomatic solution to the issue and had also pushed forward a nuclear fuel swap deal which showed that if the US stayed out, diplomatic solutions to global issues were possible. Perhaps that is what agitated the US which saw itself sidelined on what it considers a crucial issue of its external policy. Too bad major players like China and Russia were unable to allow regional powers like Brazil and Turkey to play their roles in positive resolution of international political conflicts. It was equally disturbing to see Lebanon merely abstain rather than voting against the resolution - but this shows yet again how weak Muslim states reveal themselves to be in the face of US pressure.

The fact of the matter is that Iran continues to be a member of the Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and maintains its nuclear development including low grade uranium enrichment is for peaceful purposes as allowed for under the NPT. However, if this hostile and discriminatory approach continues against Iran, it may well decide to opt out of the NPT and go for higher uranium enrichment bringing it closer to moving over into weapons production. So what will the sanctions have achieved in such a case? Meanwhile, it is vital to remember that other NPT members like Japan also have extensive enrichment, reprocessing and fast breeder programmes and can move to developing nuclear weapons capability in a matter of weeks if that - yet they remain NPT members and suffer no sanctions.

As for the US, it is hardly in a position to enforce nonproliferation, after its nuclear deal with India which directly accelerates India’s nuclear weapons capabilities. In fact the US approach towards Iran accentuates the anti-Muslim-state bias underlying US and EU nuclear policies. Clearly, like the earlier sanctions, these will also not work. However, it is time Muslim states like Pakistan made their opposition to such discriminatory sanctions clear. Surely it cannot go along with an approach that sanctifies India and Israel’s nuclear programmes, but seeks to deny Muslim states the right even to gain self-sufficiency in the peaceful nuclear fuel cycle.