Tehran resolute as UN prepares to deal with nuclear issue
Tehran (AsiaNews/Agencies) Iran is not going to back down on its nuclear programme and threatens to leave the Non Proliferation Treaty. It also thinks that UN sanctions are highly unlikely and announces that Russia's proposal to enrich Iranian uranium on its territory is no longer on the table.
Tehran is resolute on the eve of the United Nations Security Council dedicated to its nuclear programme, whilst the Washington Post reports that the US government is increasing its efforts to weaken the ayatollahs' regime from within. Analysts are divided however over the regime's popular support.
For Iran's hard-line President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, "a country's backing down [on its rights to do research] one iota on its undeniable rights is the same as losing everything. We will not bend to a few countries' threats as their demands for giving up our nation's rights are unfair and cruel."
Iranian Economy Minister Davoud Danesh-Jaafari said UN sanctions were highly unlikely and that in any event he was not worried because, as of January 20, Iran had provisioned US$ 19.4 billion in its foreign exchange reserve fund to meet any possible economic sanctions.
Similarly, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Assefi told foreign reporters that Iran insisted that it would "never" comply with any Security Council resolution ordering it to suspend uranium enrichment.
The same hard-line attitude seems to have ended Moscow's proposal to have Iranian uranium enriched in Russia. "Conditions have changed now; the Russian proposal is not on the agenda," Mr Assefi said in replying to a reporter's question, but he left the door slightly open saying that the decision was a consequence of the referral to the Security Council.
Finally, Iran's Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki said his country might consider pulling out from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
According to the Washington Post, the US government is increasing funding for radio broadcast aimed at Iran and for NGOs. It has also ordered its embassies in the region to increase their level of monitoring of what is happening inside the country.
Jon B. Wolfsthal, a fellow in the International Security Program at Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies, is quoted by Lebanonwire as saying that the US has three options to stop Iran.
It could first try to convince the world that Iran has an active nuclear weapons programme, but without a smoking gun US claims would be met with scepticism.
The second option would be to argue that, whatever Tehran's intentions, its current nuclear programme would give Iran the means to build weapons. Even though Iran could argue that the US is really trying to block its economic development and that the US and half a dozen countries already have their own uranium enrichment programmes, the US could argue that Tehran's plans are unacceptable because it has supported terrorist groups and its policies are a threat to in the region.
Finally, the US could claim that Iran has violated international treaties and legally-binding commitments it has signed and for these reasons should be stopped.
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