Nuclear Rhetoric on Iran Boils

By Greg Webb
Global Security Newswire

VIENNA — The war of words over Iran’s nuclear ambitions has escalated this week,  with a senior French official warning of war and the world’s top nuclear official urging all parties to allow his agency to further its investigation into Tehran’s past atomic activities (see GSN, Sept. 14).

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner yesterday sought to step up international pressure against Tehran, according to an Agence France-Presse report.  Since admitting to a nearly two-decade old covert nuclear program in 2003, Iran has struggled to provide enough information about its activities to alleviate Western fears that the nation is seeking to develop nuclear weapons.

“We have to prepare for the worst, and the worst is war,” Kouchner said in a broadcast interview in which he described the current tensions as “the greatest crisis.”

To address the crisis, France is preparing military contingency plans if the situation deteriorates in the future.

“We are trying to put in place plans which are the privilege of chiefs of staff and that is not for tomorrow," he said.  “We will not accept that the bomb is manufactured.”

Iran today complained that the United States and some West European nations have been treating Tehran with a level of hostility that has prevented a resolution to the nuclear crisis.

“Certain Western countries are not after the removal of ambiguities over the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program, but are following the ‘Cessation and Depravation Policy,’” Iranian Atomic Energy Organization leader Gholamreza Aghazadeh told assembled delegates to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s annual meeting here.

Menacingly, he warned that “the great nation of Iran has recorded your discriminatory behavior and performance in its memory and will not forget.”

Western diplomats here have described IAEA leader Mohamed ElBaradei as feeling growing concerns over the past several months that the world is moving to a situation mirroring the uncertainties over Iraq’s WMD capabilities before the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

ElBaradei expressed similar views in a press briefing today and urged Iran and Western nations to negotiate a resolution.

“I have no doubt if the two parties sit together [and] start to discuss their grievances, this will be a much better way to move forward than talking about who is going to hit the other first,” he said.

“I would hope that everyone would have heard the lesson, got the lesson after the Iraq situation,” he added, pleading for time for a new agency plan to learn about Iran’s past nuclear activities.  Late last month, ElBaradei agreed to a “work plan” with Tehran to once and for all resolve continuing questions about the country’s past activities.  The plan has drawn considerable criticism from Western nations (see GSN, Sept. 12).

“We have been working with the Iran issue for over four years now,” he said.  “Giving us the time of two to three months, and encouraging Iran in the process to work with us … would be a step in the right direction.”

ElBaradei said his agency is an honest institution that seeks the truth and will not be intimidated by any party.

“What I see right now is a lot of hype, it reminds me of a paraphrase of George Orwell’s quotation:  ‘In time of hype, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act,’” he said.  “I promise I can continue to be a revolutionary by giving the truth in an objective and impartial manner.”

“We are not soft, we are not hard.  We are not using a stick, we are not using a carrot,” he continued.  “We are trying to be impartial and objective.”

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