“The world has accepted our nuclear [energy] program and agreed that this issue should be resolved through negotiations and a win-win solution.” Iran’s President Hassan Rowhani, 13 October 2014.
Five days earlier, on 8 October 2014, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei reiterated his country’s “red lines” which include but are not limited to:

1. Recognition of “the absolute need for Iran’s uranium enrichment capacity to be 190,000 SWU (Separate Work Units)” – needed to produce fuel for its Bushehr reactor, which is being provided by Russia until 2021.


2. Acceptance that “Fordo, which cannot be destroyed by the enemy, must be preserved,”

3. Acceptance that “the work of nuclear scientists should in no way be stopped or slowed,” bearing in mind that Iran has the right to pursue nuclear “research and development.”

What skeptics need to bear in mind is that despite all the anti-Iran propaganda being peddled, the 17 agencies comprising the US Security apparatus have consistently taken the position for a number of years that:

1. Iran has no nuclear weapons program;

2. No decision has been taken by Iran’s political leadership to start such a program or develop a capability to produce nuclear weapons, let alone to actually start building a warhead;

3. If Iran did decide to “break out” it would take years for Iran to build a usable nuclear war head and delivery system, during which time an such program would certainly be identified and stopped by the international community long before a device could be produced.

It is also remember that unlike Israel which actual has an arsenal of more than 200 nuclear and neutron warheads mounted on delivery systems that can strike as far as Moscow, Iran is a signatory in good standing to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and, as such, has an indisputable right not only to develop a peaceful nuclear weapons program but also to receive all assistance it requires to realise its legitimate nuclear program from other signatory states.

This article was written by Barry K. Grossman for Sayyidali.com on OCT. 16, 2014. Barry K. Grossman received his B.Comm. from the University of Calgary in 1984 and his LLB from York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School in 1987. After working as a litigator at a major commercial law firm in Toronto, he moved to Australia to teach at the University of Melbourne’s Faculty of Law in 1988.

 

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