nuclear-news

But for the life of me I don’t see how the world convinces Iran it’s not entitled to such weapons when Pakistan, North Korea, Russia, India, China, the United States, France, Britain and Israel all have them.

Iranians look at the map and the questions become even more pointed. Nearly half the nuclear countries are in their ‘hood or within easy shooting distance. This includes Russia, Pakistan, India and Israel. The region is astonishingly dangerous for everyone, but not least for Iran. Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister, John Baird, repeatedly describes Iran as the greatest threat to security in the world. This is political bombast masquerading as statesmanship.

Beyond question, Iranians, led by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have been outrageously provocative towards Israel, permitting the world to believe they want to see the country eliminated by force, if necessary. On the other hand, they have also said that if Palestinians themselves choose a two-state solution, one Israeli, the other Palestinian, Iran would respect that decision.

On the third hand, they’ve said the exact opposite as well.

It’s only natural that Israelis are ready to meet any contingency. That’s exactly why few observers believe Iran would dare attack Israel, a suicidal move if ever there was one. And it’s why Israel grasps at excuses to preemptively attack Iran, a far more plausible scenario than an Iranian attack on Israel.

Mr. Baird might more accurately say that Iran is the most threatened country in the world. Is it not true that in the 32 years since the Ayatollahs took over Iran, they have invaded no one while nuclear Israel has aggressed against Lebanon, Iraq and Syria? Was it not Iran that was attacked by Saddam Hussein when he was a loyal U.S. ally? Could one not say that Iran is already under attack, given that several nuclear scientists have been assassinated, its nuclear programs have been cyber-attacked by a computer virus, and only two weeks ago a mysterious explosion at an ammunition depot killed 17 members of the elite Revolutionary Guard. Isn’t it true that Israel is also testing a long-range ballistic missile capable of reaching Iran?…

even now a significant group in both Israel and the US – in the latter, many of the very same hawks and neocons who promoted so dishonestly the invasion of Iraq that led to greatly increased Iranian influence in that country – are openly pressing for a major preemptive military strike against Iran. The recklessness of this threat can hardly be exaggerated. Even the former head of the Israeli spy agency Mossad, Meir Dagan, calls an attack on Iran “the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard.”

The latest hysterical calls to attack Iran have been prompted by a new report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (which has no access to and never reports on Israeli, Pakistani or India’s nuclear weaponry). In fact the document mostly reveals the well-known pro-American bias of its new director-general, Yukiya Amano, while the reaction to it demonstrates the usual anti-Iran biases of the mainstream media. For as nuclear non-proliferation expert Ramesh Thakur points out, the agency only offers a weasely double-negative: There is no evidence that Iran is NOT developing nuclear weapons. It says that Iran has carried out activities “relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device,” but patently fails to say that the country IS developing such a device. Which you would never know from most media reports.

On the basis of the same information, the IAEA under former head Mohammed El Baradei had stated there was no evidence Iran was doing so. And only fours years ago, a U.S. National Intelligence Estimate, reflecting the views of 16 U.S. intelligence agencies (the United States has 16 separate US intelligence agencies?!) pooh-poohed any early threat of an Iranian nuclear weapon. It concluded “with high confidence” that when an Iranian program for nuclear weapons had been discovered in 2003, Iran stopped it….

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/second-reading/gerald-caplan/why-everybody-except-iran-can-have-nuclear-weapons/article2249596/?utm_medium=Feeds%3A