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Unwarranted resolution

In voting for the further tightening of international sanctions against Iran despite the satisfactory resolution of all concrete issues surrounding its previous nuclear activities, the United Nations Security Council has wilfully and unnecessarily escalated a crisis that was heading towards a peaceful end. When Iran’s nuclear file was sent to the UNSC in 2006, there was one major and several minor outstanding issues that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) claimed were standing in the way of certification of the absence of “undeclared nuclear activities.” The major issue was the extent of work Iran might have done on the P-1 and P-2 centrifuge designs bought from the clandestine network run by A.Q. Khan. The minor issues were (a) establishing the source of enriched uranium contamination on equipment at an Iranian technical university; (b) explaining the procurement activities of the Physics Research Centre (PHRC); (c) understanding why Iran had conducted experiments with Polonium-210; (d) understanding the significance of a document on the casting of uranium metal that Iran said it was given by the Khan network; and (e) resolving the status and extent of work undertaken at the Gchine uranium mine. The IAEA also said it had questions based on documents provided to it by other member states (to wit, the United States) suggesting that Iran might have engaged in additional studies and research on warhead design and uranium conversion. In diplomatic discussions of the Iranian nuclear file, these alleged studies invariably figured last.

Not anymore. Now that the IAEA, in its latest report dated February 22, has pronounced itself satisfied with Iran’s explanation of all five outstanding issues (the P-1 and P-2 question was resolved last year itself), these “alleged studies” (as the IAEA itself terms them) have become the new focal point of U.S.-led efforts to pressure the Islamic Republic to give up its right to pursue a civilian nuclear fuel cycle. Resolution 1803 — passed 14-0, with Indonesia abstaining — glosses over the dramatically positive import of the IAEA report. It makes demands that are not only illegal in international law but also politically counterproductive. Iran maintains that the “alleged studies” are a fabrication by the U.S., Israel, and the designated terrorist organisation, Mojahideen-e-Khalq and, in any case, draw on open-source information. On its part, the IAEA report makes it clear that “the Agency has not detected the use of nuclear material in connection with the alleged studies, nor does it have credible information in this regard.” Under the circumstances, it is most regrettable that Russia and China as well as South Africa chose to ignore the true significance of the IAEA’s findings and instead joined the U.S. and its allies in this blatant misuse of the Security Council’s authority.

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