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Diplomacy the only realistic way to keep Iran away from nuclear weapons

Diplomacy: Best Way to Keep Iran Away From the Bomb Forever
HUFFINGTON POST, Kate Gould, : 09/05/20123 Things You Need to Know about the IAEA Report As Iran war-fever again breaks out upon the release of the latest IAEA report on Iran’s nuclear program, the single most important determinant of ‘how many years Iran is from a nuclear weapon’ bears repeating: according to U.S. and Israeli intelligence , Iran has not decided to build a nuclear weapon. Amidst this media frenzy, one can forget that centrifuges spinning on their own don’t speed toward nuclear weapons. People (in governments) make the political decision about whether or not to make nuclear weapons. As countless top national security experts have pointed out , diplomacy is the best way to persuade the people in Iran — yes, there are living breathing people behind those centrifuges — to never make that decision.

1. The Report Confirms (Again): Iran Is Still Not Building Nuclear Weapons

The IAEA report highlights troubling developments about Iran’s nuclear program, but it also confirms what every other Iran report from the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog has verified: Iran is still using its enriched uranium strictly for peaceful purposes. The report further confirms U.S. and Israeli intelligence assessments that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon .

Nonetheless, the report has unleashed a firestorm of new speculations about ‘how far Iran is from the bomb.’  These breathless reports predicted that Iran has been on the verge  of obtaining nuclear weapons for more than a quarter century. In fact, in 1992, Israeli parliamentarian (now prime minister) Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Iran was 3-5 years from the ability to produce a nuclear weapon, and that the threat had to be “uprooted by an international front headed by the U.S.”

The primary reason Iran didn’t live up to predictions of acquiring nuclear weapons is simply because Iran has not decided to race toward the bomb. As Abraham Lincoln said, the best way to predict the future is to create it. Accordingly, the best way to predict the future of Iran’s nuclear program is to support a diplomatic resolution that would end the U.S.-Iran-Israel crisis.

Negotiating with Iran has the potential to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran forever. Even the most ardent proponents of a military strike admit that an attack would only delay Iran’s (currently civilian) nuclear program for a couple years at best. As U.S. and Israeli officials have warned , an attack could lead to a catastrophic regional war and embolden Iranian hardliners to develop a bomb as a deterrent from further attacks from the U.S. and Israel.

The IAEA’s findings again underscore that this is the time for diplomacy to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran. In addition, it highlights how this time should not be wasted, and that the IAEA is a critical component in negotiations with Iran. It is widely known among Iran experts that the surest path for successful diplomacy is to use the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) as the basis of talks. Using the NPT as the fundamental basis for the negotiations underscores that Iran has both the right to nuclear power and the responsibility to verify that its power is for peaceful purposes only.

Basing negotiations on the core principles of the NPT and reciprocity (a ‘give and take approach’) are largely why the talks between the U.S., Iran, and five other world powers in Istanbul were so successful , and why the proceeding talks were less so .

2. The IAEA’s New Findings: How to Understand the Headlines…… http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kate-gould/diplomacy-best-way-to-keep-iran-away_b_1859340.html

September 6, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Iran, politics international