Former Iranian President Calls for WMD-Free Middle East

By Jon Fox, Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — Former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami yesterday called for creating a nuclear weapon-free zone in the Middle East and asserted that nuclear power is necessary to satisfy his nation’s need for electricity (see GSN, Sept. 7).

Speaking to reporters through an interpreter at the National Cathedral here, prior to a speech given to an estimated 1,200 people, Khatami warned that Middle Eastern instability could spawn a crisis that could threaten not only the region but also “humanity in the global order.”

He called for Israel, India and Pakistan to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and relinquish their nuclear weapons (see GSN, Aug. 24).

Unlike Iran, none of the three states have signed the treaty. Both India and Pakistan have tested nuclear devices, and Israel is believed to have as a many as 200 nuclear warheads.

“In order to create that weapons of mass destruction-free zone, these states, first of all, should be pursued and forced to join the NPT,” Khatami said, citing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction as one of the most pressing concerns facing the world.

“We all have to try to eliminate these weapons from the face of the earth.”

Khatami, who served as president of Iran from 1997 to 2005, is the highest ranking Iranian official to visit Washington since the Tehran hostage crisis led to a severing of relations in 1979

During Khatami’s two terms as president, Iran continued to pursue a clandestine nuclear program that President George W. Bush has claimed is a cover for weapons development.

Echoing arguments from current leaders in Tehran, Khatami said Iran is pursuing civilian nuclear technology and it has the right as a NPT member to do so.

Article 4 of the treaty provides each member with the “inalienable right” to develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes. “Every nation who is a signatory is entitled to this right,” Khatami said.  “And there are mechanisms in order to safeguard these and prevent diversions.”

The United States and other leading world powers have demanded that Iran halt its uranium enrichment program before beginning negotiations on a longer-term solution to the nuclear crisis.

Iran ignored an Aug. 31 U.N. Security Council deadline to freeze its sensitive nuclear activities and now faces the possibility of economic sanctions (see related GSN story, today).

While International Atomic Energy Agency officials report they have not found proof of an Iranian weapons program, Tehran’s lack of cooperation has left the agency unable to dispel doubts.  In an Aug. 31 report, IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei wrote that “the agency remains unable to make further progress in its efforts to verify the correctness and completeness of Iran’s [nuclear] declarations.”

To meet Iranian electricity demands, Khatami said “you need a lot of nuclear fuel.”  Much of the international concern about Iran’s program, however, results from the fact that the same centrifuge technology used to enrich uranium to produce nuclear power reactor fuel can also enrich uranium to weapon-usable levels.

Iran is rich in both oil and natural gas reserves but roughly a third of its domestically consumed gasoline is imported due insufficient refining capabilities.

Still, Tehran’s investment in nuclear fuel technology makes little economic sense, according to a report written in April on Iran’s energy program by researchers at the Pacific Northwest and Los Alamos national laboratories (see GSN, April 27).

“Certain elements of this program are highly questionable,” they wrote.

While Iran’s proven oil reserves would last roughly 90 years at its current production rate and its natural gas reserves 220 years, the country’s uranium reserves would be exhausted in less than one year considering Tehran’s declared program to develop seven light-water reactors, according to the report.

The authors conclude it would be much cheaper for Iran to import nuclear fuel than for the country to develop its own enrichment facilities given the government’s estimates of its uranium reserves.

In the most likely scenario, “Iran’s uranium reserves would be exhausted before the seven-reactor construction program was even completed,” they write.

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