The Iran issue is now reaching a flash point with a number of reports coming out of the Bush administration of a military strike and even a possible nuclear “bunker” bomb to “destroy” Iran’s nuclear capabilities. Even if the nuclear scenario is discounted, the move to bring Iran under Chapter VII in the Security Council and then legitimise unilateral military action under the fig leaf of a UN resolution brings a sense of déjà vu to the whole issue. Once again we have unsubstantiated reports of weapons of mass destruction and ratcheting up of war hysteria on a future threat to the “civilised world” from a nuclear-armed Iran, followed by another possible US military misadventure in West Asia.
The case against Iran is that it has installed a cascade 164 of centrifuges in Natanz for enrichment of uranium, which opens the way for an Iranian bomb. This is the argument that the US and the European Union has been advancing for some time. What they do not say is that Iran has the right to enrich uranium for their nuclear power program under the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT). As we shall see, under the guise of “Iran’s threat to world peace”, the US is trying to introduce fundamental changes to the basic structure of the Non Proliferation Treaty itself.