Ayoon Wa Azan (Iran and buying time)

Over the past ten years or more, I have followed nuclear talks between the P5+1 countries and Iran. Each round began with expectations of a breakthrough, but then each ended in failure. The latest round did not deviate from the norm. The meeting took place in Almaty, the former capital of Kazakhstan, one month ago, and resumed in Istanbul with a session that lasted 13 and a half hours, before the negotiators returned to Almaty last week. On the eve of the meeting, I read that “World Powers Expect Iran to be Ready for Progress at Next Nuclear Talks.” Then after the talks, I read that they “End[ed] Without Accord or Plans for Another Round.” Catherine Ashton, High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy for the European Union, looked upset and dejected as she left the last meeting, as though she had been in a funeral. Is it possible that the reader and I know something that the five permanent members of the Security Council and Germany do not know? Iran is using the negotiations to buy time, while its nuclear program marches on. The major powers respond after each failure with new sanctions or threats thereof, a measure that the U.S. and the UK took this time as well. But we all know that Iran is already under four rounds of sanctions form the Security Council, and additional ones from the U.S. and the EU; yet this has failed to derail its nuclear program. The Obama administration proclaims that “all options are on the table,” and then chooses to negotiate every time. Now, North Korea and its leader Kim Jong-un have threatened the U.S. with nuclear war. In the latest round, the major powers called on Iran to scale back its nuclear program, and put an end to any uranium enrichment that gets it closer to producing nuclear weapons, for example by diverting uranium enriched to 20 percent for use in energy generation, and reducing stockpiles of or exporting other enriched uranium, in return for lifting the Western sanctions on gold and precious metals, and Iranian exports of petrochemicals. In the past, I relied on information provided by Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei when he was the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna. I kept in touch with him, while gathering information from every possible source. It is my conviction that Iran will continue to enrich uranium claiming that it is for peaceful purposes, which is Iran’s right as part of international nonproliferation treaties; Iran also argues that the six major powers focus on Iran and ignore Israel. Once again I say that Iran has only the intent to produce a nuclear weapon, while Israel, which engages in occupation, killing, and destruction, and which is led by a racist government, has a confirmed nuclear arsenal. Justice requires that world powers seek to rid the entire Middle East of weapons of mass destruction, instead of focusing on one country while allowing Israel to possess nuclear weapons. The same logic says that the capable Arab countries, and I'm talking specifically about Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, should announce their intention to start military nuclear programs to confront Israel and Iran. Indeed, such a declaration alone would motivate the major powers to seek to stop Arab nuclear programs, and render the Middle East a WMD-free zone. In Almaty, Iran offered meager, empty proposals, as it had done in every previous round of negotiations. Iranian negotiator Saeed Jalili protested the reaction of the major countries, and said they need time to understand the Iranian proposals. Time is passing, and when Iran feels that the U.S. might take military action against it with incitement from Israel, or the latter might take unilateral military action that would drag in the U.S., it will request another round of negotiations, promising a breakthrough that will remain elusive. The Arab countries should be concerned, before anyone else, with the negotiations with Iran. But instead, they have chosen to leave the stage clear for Iran and other powers in an issue that is fateful for all of our countries. The views expressed by the author do not necessarily represent or reflect the editorial policy of Arabstoday.