US’s role in the Iran nuclear ‘crisis’

2012-06-20   (China Daily and By Ma Xiaolin) — No wonder the new round of talks in Moscow on the Iranian nuclear issue didn’t achieve any concrete progress, frankly speaking, no one is confident of solving a matter concerning Iran’s core interests through the talks. Especially as the United States has just heightened tensions by issuing new trade sanctions that include China and Singapore.

Actually, the Iranian nuclear issue is not only a matter of nuclear proliferation, it also reflects the lack of strategic mutual trust between the US and Iran. It is the US that has pushed Iran to seek to become a nuclear state, also it is the US has sensationalized Iran’s nuclear program as a global issue.

In 1957, in order to compete with the former Soviet Union in the Middle East, the United States and Iran signed a civil nuclear cooperation agreement as part of the US Atoms for Peace program. In 1963, Iran signed the Limited Test Ban Treaty and in 1968 the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

But ties between the US and Iran soured after the Islamic revolution in 1979 and Iran turned to the USSR for help.

In 2003, one year after the Iranian nuclear program became news headlines worldwide, the Iranian government signed the protocol allowing snap inspections of nuclear facilities by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

However, the US continued to put pressure on what it called a “rogue state”. In 2005 Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected president and adopted a hardline nuclear policy, saying in 2009 that Iran would not retreat “one iota” on its right to a nuclear program. That’s how the Iranian nuclear problem turned into a “crisis”.

Today the crisis is so deep that a basic question is ignored: Does Iran have the capacity to produce nuclear weapons? The answer, according to experts, is not as certain as the US claims. For weapons use, at least 90 percent pure uranium is required, but Iran cannot even produce 20 percent pure uranium for medical and experimental use. Even if they make breakthroughs one day they will still need to conduct nuclear explosion tests and acquire other technologies to develop a useable weapon.

Even Iran’s intention of developing nuclear weapons is in doubt. In February Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei openly said that nuclear weapons of mass destruction are contrary to Islamic teachings and the state does not intend to own them.