Thomas Graham (Tom Paine): Iran: A Crisis Of Choice

[Jack Rabbit]

From TomPaine.com
Dated Nonday August 15

Iran: A Crisis Of Choice
By Thomas Graham

The controversy over the Iranian nuclear program is neither a new issue nor is it a crisis. But if the United States does not handle this issue carefully, the result could be that Iran would leave both the negotiating table and the Non-Proliferation Treaty and all parties would be worse off.

Iran signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) on the first day it was opened for signature on July 1, 1968, and was an Original Party when it entered into force in 1970. However, for at least the last 15 years, there have been suspicions among some in the NPT community about the real objective of the Iranian nuclear program—is it for peaceful electricity or nuclear weapons? The United States, with some justification, has been especially skeptical.

In late 2003, Iran confirmed some of those suspicions when it declared that it had been in violation of its safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for many years. In essence, Iran had been developing uranium enrichment technology without disclosing this to the IAEA. At the same time, however, Iran denied any intention of building nuclear weapons and pledged cooperation with the IAEA in the future. Iran also promised to join the IAEA’s expanded inspection agreement and to temporarily halt uranium enrichment related activities. This temporary suspension was terminated in June, 2004 but was subsequently reinstated. And early in 2004, Iran began negotiating with Britain, France and Germany—representing the European Union—over the future of its program.

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Ambassador Thomas Graham is currently senior counsel at the law firm of Morgan Lewis. He served as a senior U.S. diplomat negotiating every arms control agreement over the last 30 years.