Tough Iranian, U.S. Attitudes Slow Nuclear Deal

Hard-line policies in both Washington and Tehran may be backfiring and hampering prospects for resolving the Iranian nuclear crisis, according to some international security analysts (see GSN, April 2).

U.S. diplomatic pressure combined with Washington’s refusal to rule out military action against Iran may have strengthened the current Iranian regime, the Los Angeles Times reported.

“Iran is full of conspiracy theories, and some of them may be right,” said Christopher Rundle, a former British diplomat to Iran and honorary president of the Institute of Iranian Studies at Durham University in Britain.  “The Americans might be supporting Baluchi and Arab separatists. There is a concerted effort to destabilize Iran.”

For its part, Tehran’s bellicose public diplomacy and recent seizure of 15 British troops have undermined support among Western moderates, according to the Times.

Iran’s decision to reduce its cooperation with U.N. nuclear inspectors was partly based on concerns that information provided to International Atomic Energy Agency would be used by U.S. military planners, the Times.

Iranian fears of a U.S. attack are growing, according to an Iranian analyst.

“Because the U.S. military configurations in the Persian Gulf are very similar to those before the Iraq invasion, and because the neoconservatives in the American administration are prone to this sort of stupidity and craziness, we have been fully prepared in terms of hardware and military arsenals but also software and information for electronic warfare,” said Hamidreza Taraghi, head of the international affairs office of the Islamic Coalition Party, a conservative parliamentary group close to the Iranian leadership (Daragahi/Mostaghim, Los Angeles Times, April 3).

Meanwhile, a dispute over Russia’s willingness to complete construction of a nuclear power plant in Iran has reinforced Tehran’s desire to develop an indigenous uranium enrichment capability, Agence France-Presse reported today (see GSN, March 26).

Russia has halted work at the Bushehr reactor site, claiming Iran has missed contractual payments for the work.  Some Russian officials have also indicated they would not approve the first shipment of low-enriched uranium fuel for the reactor until the larger nuclear crisis is resolved (see GSN, March 20).

“Not giving us the fuel proves our case that you cannot trust the West to deliver fuel and it also proves we have to seriously pursue uranium enrichment in order to have a level of security,” said Gholamreza Aghazadeh, head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization.

Aghazadeh said the financial dispute would be resolved this week when Russian officials plan to visit Iran.

“In the next two or three days the Russians will come to Tehran to sign an agreement to solve the financial problems,” he said.  “The Russians have told us that since their company does not have money ‘you need to help us financially’. A framework has been found to solve their financial problems” (Farhad Pouladi, Agence France-Presse, April 3).

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