Kowtowing to Iran
New York Daily News
Friday, November 28th, 2003
For readers born with a substantial supply of optimism and always hungry for more, here is a gift that will make them happier than ever. It is a mound of information collected by the U.S. and some of its allies that shows Iran and North Korea have achieved technological advances in nuclear weapons that startle even Western experts.
The optimism grows from the belief of some of these experts that they will be able to get Iran and North Korea to stop making more nuclear weapons, and even destroy some of their existing weaponry.
But some of these optimistic Westerners likely will sink into pessimistic holes. After that, they will collapse into still deeper gloom, because their own countries could be sinking deeper into danger.
Just a few weeks ago, the CIA and the International Atomic Energy Agency got swift kicks in the ankles and other parts of their anatomies for discovering a couple of unpleasant surprises. Iran is far along in producing nuclear weapons, and North Korea's program is even broader and deeper.
Then on Wednesday, the atomic energy agency, which is an arm of the UN, met in Vienna and said some decidedly nasty things about those two countries. But the agency did not demand that they destroy the nuclear weaponry they have stored in forts they call warehouses.
Many of the nations of the world wanted a resolution about all this sent to the UN Security Council. However, the international agency has decided it wants the resolution sent not to the Security Council but to itself.
That's just part of the story. It was revealed by Western nuclear specialists less than two weeks ago that Iran has been working on a nuclear program for 18 years. Yes, 18 years, almost the same length of time Saddam Hussein worked on his nuclear weapons, a program that received a major setback from an Israeli air attack on an atomic reactor in 1981. (The reactor was built, by the way, with French equipment.)
Exactly why the board of governors of the atomic energy agency took some sharp slaps at Iran but not North Korea is a bit of a mystery because North Korea is already a nuclear power, has a huge army and is controlled by a near-mad ruler. It is also in a perpetual state of hunger. Any sign of nuclear weapons being prepared for action against North Korean revolutionaries probably would destroy the government - and most of the rest of the peninsula. One part of Korea would destroy the other.
Still, the international agency did speak out against Iran's program. And while there is no hope that rulers of Iran will now turn their country into a placid nation, the statement could be a weapon against those who are tyrannizing Iran. There are enough Iranians who are sick enough of the dictatorial clergymen not only to long for freedom, but to achieve it. The statement makes clear what a rogue nation they are living in.
Here's what Director General Mohamed ElBaradei said:
"By today's decision, the international community affirmed, in no uncertain terms, the integrity of the nuclear nonproliferation regime by strongly deploring Iran's failures and breaches to comply with its obligations under the safeguards agreement.
"The international community also laid down a marker that Iran must strictly adhere to its nonproliferation obligations in both letter and spirit through a policy of active cooperation and full transparency. Importantly, and in addition, it made it clear that any serious failures in the future by Iran to comply with its obligations will be met with an appropriately serious response."
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