Iran’s deadly ambitions

UN finally admits the country is after a nuclear missile, but is it too late?

Last Updated: 3:29 PM, February 25, 2010

Posted: 1:21 AM, February 21, 2010

Comments: 9

Amir Taheri

For almost 20 years, the United Nations nuclear watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) did its best not to notice the slow but steady building of a military nuclear capability in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

First, Hans Blix, the Swedish director of the IAEA, chose to play the happy cuckold of diplomacy by admitting that Iran might have cheated on its obligations under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty but still merited being given a second chance.

His successor, the Egyptian Mohamed ElBaradei went further by casting himself in the role of apologist-in-chief for Tehran’s nuclear program. Even when IAEA inspectors discovered evidence that Tehran was secretly enriching uranium, something that the mullahs had repeatedly denied, ElBaradei insisted that the intentions of the Islamic Republic were purely peaceful. It is not surprising that ElBaradei, now retired, has received Tehran’s support for his bid to become a candidate for the presidency of Egypt.

EPA

Iran's Shahab III missile is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead more than 1,200 miles. Other rockets could reach Europe.

The IAEA’s new director, the Japanese Yukia Amano has no desire to play happy cuckold and harbors no presidential ambitions. This is why he has allowed the publication of a new report confirming decade-old suspicions that the Iranian program may be a facade for building a nuclear arsenal.

The report to be discussed at a meeting of the IAEA’s Board of Governors in Vienna March 1-5 is likely to report the Islamic Republic to the United Nations’ Security Council.

The report breaks a number of taboos raised by Blix and ElBaradei. It uses forbidden words and phrases such as missiles, payload, and military purposes. The report sets the whole issue in a new framework by making four crucial points:

1. Iran has never fully cooperated with the IAEA inspectors, and its level of cooperation in recent months has declined further.

2. Iran may have had a secret parallel nuclear program for some time.

3. There is concern about the possible existence in Iran of past or current undisclosed activities related to the development of a nuclear payload for a missile.

4. Iran is in violation of its obligations under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and five Security Council resolutions.

Iran’s nuclear journey started in 1956 with the setting up of a project under President Dwight Eisenhower’s Atom for Peace. The first batch of Iranian students studying nuclear physics was dispatched to the United States in 1958. In 1967 the first atomic reactor, a gift from the US, started work in Amirabad, then a suburb of Tehran but now absorbed into the city itself.

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Doctor Theopolis

02/21/2010 12:26 PM

We should be supporting the Green Revolution with a covert CIA operation. But with Omuslim in charge, this will never happen. Too bad, it would be nice to see the Mullahs and Ahmasmellydad be tossed into Evin Prison and be subsequently executed by firing squad.
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tlwinslow

02/21/2010 12:07 PM

Whether Iran has nukes or not, it sure has thousands of centrifuges whirling away enriching uranium, so why does the U.S. sit around waiting to letit happen and end up wondering what happened? It's time for the U.S. to make it happen, by recognizing that Iran is the Tweedledum to Iraq's Tweedledee, and finishing what it started by Shocking and Aweing Iran to destroy its military infrastructure, then invading and dismantling all nuclear capabilities, then staying for a generation to create a stable secular democratic govt. and educate the children out of the endless cycle of male supremacy and ignorance. With Iran and Iraq treated as a single problem, we can make the world safe for our grandchildren. Ditto Pakistan and Afghanitan. See my plan for defeating radical Islam and its father fundamentalist Islam on my Islam history site... go.to/islamhistory
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Opinionator

02/21/2010 11:46 AM

If only President Obama knew what was going on in Iran, he'd sit down with the Mullahs to find some common ground, generate some hope, and make the change we've all been waiting for happen right now.

I wish Obama read the NY Post.
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Altosackbuteer

02/21/2010 11:35 AM

Bomb bomb bomb
Bomb bomb Iran
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Hughie2

02/21/2010 10:32 AM

So, I take it Mr. Taheri, the unmentioned bottom line to your piece is that Israel had better get off the stump and neutralize Iran's nuclear capability.
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Jack Coyote

02/21/2010 9:50 AM

The smoking gun is the part about Iranian missiles that are able to hit Europe, but can't carry enough conventional weapons payload to do much damage. Why build the missiles in the first place if not to develop the nuclear weapons that sit atop the missiles?
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Matvillain

02/21/2010 9:41 AM

The people of Iran are being held hostage. Now is the time to blow Iran off the map. We gave them a pass in 1979 and now look where we are.
Whether American policy towards Iran has been right or wrong, it is now inconsequential. American children are clearly in danger and the enemy must go. We should immediately blow up that regime from the air, take out all it's military defense and then hand that country back to the Persian people, who need our help.
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Caan

02/21/2010 5:51 AM

Another great analytical piece by Amir Taheri. This is a must read for President Obama and his advisors as they ponder what to do next about a regime that seems hell-bent on acquring nuclear weapons and provokling a war in the name of a mad ideology.