The International Community Must...

The international community must,

(i) Return Iran's nuclear dossier to its rightful place, the IAEA and cancel, or at least suspend, all sanctions against Iran. In a long article posted a year ago, I explained in great detail why sending Iran's nuclear dossier to the United Nations Security Council was illegal from the standpoint of international agreements, and why the subsequent Resolutions issued by the UNSC against Iran have also been illegal. Therefore, first and foremost, these illegal acts must be stopped.

(ii) Stop demanding that Iran should give up its fundamental right to uranium enrichment which, as I explained above, is entitled to. Realistically, Iran will not agree to that. Military attacks on Iran will not solve the problem. It will force Iran to leave the NPT, and start a crash program to develop the bomb, something that it has not done so far, and so long as its uranium enrichment facilities are safeguarded by the IAEA, it will not be able to do so, and

(iii) Provide Iran with meaningful security gaurantees, so that Iran, an important country in an extremely bad neighbourhood, would feel safe enough not to think about any non-peaceful use of nuclear technology. If we just put ourselves in Iran's leaders' shoes, and understand that Iran is surrounded on three sides by hostile forces, then perhaps we will have a better understanding of why Iran feels so unsecure.

What is the best way to allow Iran to have uranium enrichment on its soil, but also keep it under tight international control? A proposal such as that made by Thomas Pickering, which would set up an international consortium for uranium enrichment on Iran's soil, with full participation by both Iran and the West.