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Serious effort needed for bringing peaceful and diplomatic solution to Iranian nuclear issue
Akahata editorial

The Iranian nuclear issue has come up for discussion at the U.N. Security Council which is capable of imposing sanctions. A serious effort is needed to solve the question peacefully and diplomatically.

Sovereignty and world's concern

Under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran decided to resume activities in preparation for uranium enrichment last summer and restarted enrichment activities this year.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors adopted a resolution at its emergency meeting on February 4 expressing "serious concerns" about Iran's nuclear program and stating its decision to report the issue to the UNSC.

The resolution urged Iran to "re-establish full and sustained suspension of all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities." It is due to the "absence of confidence that Iran's nuclear program is exclusively for peaceful purposes ... after nearly three years of intensive verification activity." This is the period when Iran suspended its uranium enrichment activities.

The IAEA Board of Governors' regular meeting on March 8, according to the chair's summary statement, reconfirmed the finding on this issue and decided to report it to the UNSC.

The Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty provides its parties, including Iran, with the right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy. This is what the Iranian government is claiming it is doing. However, Iran's failure to declare activities that might be related to the "nuclear black market" has caused concerns in the international society.

Nuclear weapons can be made from highly-enriched uranium or plutonium extracted through the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel. Iran needs to accept IAEA verification and receive international understanding in order to make certain that its nuclear activities are for peaceful purposes.

Problematic NPT structure

The IAEA resolution called on Iran to implement safeguards based on the NPT. Condoning the monopoly of nuclear weapons by the U.S., Russia, Britain, France, and China, the NPT imposes on them a non-proliferation obligation (Article I) to prevent other members from becoming a nuclear-weapons state. The NPT is a discriminatory treaty in favor of the nuclear-weapons states.

The NPT is clearly problematic as the nuclear monopoly structure continues and the U.S. government practices "double standards" to change its policy depending the party it deals with.

However, the emergence of a new nuclear weapons state cannot be justified for any reason. The NPT in Article VI states that "each party to the treaty undertakes to pursue negotiations in good faith" for nuclear disarmament. What is needed now is efforts to eliminate the threat or use of nuclear weapons by nuclear weapons states, advance international negotiations for the abolition of nuclear weapons, and to turn this promise into a reality.

The Iranian nuclear question has been inflamed by media reports about U.S. plans to impose sanctions against Iran or attack Iranian nuclear facilities.

Iran has expressed its hope that negotiations will "remove ambiguities that its nuclear activities remain peaceful" (Letter dated February 2, 2006, from the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council to the director general of the IAEA).

As the IAEA director general stressed, countries concerned should avoid the exchange of exaggerations and make every effort for a "political solution."

Intensification of tension must be avoided

Along with discussion in the U.N. Security Council, the IAEA will continue inspections and discussions, thus helping in the effort to bring about a peaceful and diplomatic solution.

It is strongly needed for the U.N. and the international society to avoid actions to further increase tensions in the region and solve Iran's nuclear question through peaceful negotiations.
- Akahata, March 16, 2006