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July
17, 2004
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Weekend
Edition
July 17 / 18, 2004
Israel,
Iran and the IAEA
Nuclear
Ambiguity or Hypocrisy?
By
SASAN FAYAZMANESH
Last week, Mohamad ElBaradei, the head
of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), paid a visit
to Israel. The visit was prompted mostly by the charge of duplicity
that is often levied against the agency by the indigenous people
of the Middle East, who perceive the IAEA as one among many instruments
in the US-Israeli (USraeli) arsenal of colonial domination.
This charge against the IAEA
is not without justification. The IAEA played a major role in
the continuation of the USraeli instigated UN sanctions against
Iraq, sanctions which ultimately destroyed the country and made
it more vulnerable to outside aggression. Also, as I have written
previously for CounterPunch, in the past few years the IAEA has
been under severe pressure by USrael to repeat for Iran what
it did in the case of Iraq: namely, to bring about UN imposed
sanctions against Iran by reporting it to the UN Security Council
for non-compliance of its Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)
agreement. So far, the IAEA has not been able to provide the
"smoking gun" that USrael needs to move on Iran. That
is, despite numerous "sightings of illegal nuclear activities"
in Iran by USraelis and their US-Iraq based "good terrorist"
organization (MKO), various visits by the IAEA to the Iranian
nuclear facilities, and more intrusive inspections, the IAEA
has been unable to prove that Iranian nuclear activity has a
military dimension or that Iran has an active policy of developing
nuclear weapons. Yet, even though there has been no "smoking
gun," the IAEA, under the weight of USrael, is exerting
greater pressure on Iran to stop even the kind of nuclear research
and development that the country is entitled to and are legally
allowed under the NPT.
At the same time, the IAEA
has treated Israel-which regularly violates international laws
with impunity, which has never joined the NPT, which has pursued
illegal nuclear research and development, which is believed to
have hundreds of warheads, which is occupying Palestinian and
Syrian lands, which is committing sociocide against the Palestinians,
which is continuously threatening the people of the region and
even carrying out some of its threats-with kid gloves. It is
this kind of hypocrisy that prompted the IAEA to send ElBaradei
to Israel. The main aim of ElBaradei's visit was to change the
perception of the agency and make it look more like a fair-minded,
strong and independent international body. The result of the
trip, however, was anything but what was intended. Indeed, ElBaradei's
visit, if not tragic, turned out to be a farce from beginning
to end. Given that this unique trip made no national headlines
and was hardly mentioned in the news media, I will chronicle
below a sample of reports surrounding the IAEA visit to Israel
as they appeared on various websites of news agencies.
Chronicle
BBC (June 27, 2004): Mr. ElBaradei is scheduled
to travel to Israel next month to discuss making the Middle East
a nuclear-free zone. He said everyone knew that Israel had a
nuclear capability - even if Israel has always refused to admit
it. "We need . . . to rid the Middle East of all weapons
of mass destruction," he told Reuters news agency on a visit
to Russia. "Israel agrees with that, but they say it has
to be... after peace agreements. My proposal is may be we need
to start to have a parallel dialogue on security at the same
time when we're working on the peace process." Mr. ElBaradei
said he would like Israel, along with other Middle East countries,
to open up nuclear facilities to inspections by the UN's International
Atomic Energy Agency. But he would not be insisting Israel admits
to having nuclear weapons, when he visits the country in early
July. "I think everybody takes it as a given that Israel
has a nuclear capability, if not nuclear weapons," he said.
"So whether they would like to come in the open, whether
they maintain. . . ambiguity, it's for them to decide."
Israel has a policy of "strategic ambiguity" - neither
admitting nor denying it has nuclear weapons - but analysts believe
it has more than 100 nuclear weapons. Its Arab neighbors have
frequently accused the international community of double standards
for requiring them to be free of nuclear weapons while doing
little, in their eyes, about Israel. Mr. ElBaradei said it was
"not sustainable in any region or even globally to have
some [people] rely on nuclear weapons and others being told they
should not have nuclear weapons."
Jerusalem Post (June 27) - A senior Israeli diplomatic
official responded to El-Baradei's statement by saying that Israel
"has no intention of changing its policy." . . One
government official said that when El-Baradei visits, he will
be told politely that while Iran is continuing in its attempts
to gain a nuclear capability, and soon after Libya developed
a weapons of mass destruction capability under the nose of the
international community, "it is not exactly the time to
play around with your deterrence."
Voice of America (June 27): White House spokesman Scott
McClellan says Iran's decision to resume building centrifuges
can only heighten international concerns about its nuclear program.
. . For the Bush administration, those concerns are that Iran's
nuclear ambitions extend beyond peaceful energy purposes. "We
have been - the United States - most certain about our views
that the Iranians are trying to acquire military uses for nuclear
power, maybe even nuclear weapons," said National Security
Advisor Condoleezza Rice, speaking on the U.S. television program
Fox News Sunday. "And that is why we have been the leaders
in working with the IAEA, working with the Europeans to try and
make certain that the Iranians know that they really only have
two choices: one is to cooperate; the other is to face isolation."
Associated Press (July 2): Israeli Foreign Minister
Silvan Shalom told the White House on Friday that Iran was trying
to develop longer-range missiles that could pose a threat to
European nations. Shalom took his concerns to Condoleezza Rice,
the president's national security adviser, and then told reporters:
"We cannot allow the Iranians to move forward in their efforts
to develop nuclear weapons." . . Shalom also said Iran was
involved in terror attacks, saying, "They are trying to
recruit more volunteers to carry out suicide attacks against
Israelis and against Western countries."
BBC (July 7): Mr. ElBaradei is in Israel as part
of a push for a nuclear-free Middle East. Hours before his arrival,
Mr. Sharon said Israel would continue with its policy of neither
confirming nor denying it has nuclear weapons. Iran, which unlike
Israel has signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT),
says it wants nuclear technology for peaceful purposes. But Washington
and Israel accuse Tehran of secretly trying to develop nuclear
weapons. Late in 2003, the head of Israel's intelligence service,
said that the Iranian nuclear program represented the greatest
ever threat to Israel. . . Mr ElBaradei was not scheduled to
visit any Israeli nuclear facilities. Mr. Sharon, quoted by Israeli
Army Radio, said the country did not intend to change its "no
show, no tell" policy of nuclear ambiguity. "I don't
know what he [ElBaradei] is coming to see," Mr. Sharon
said. "Israel has to hold in its hand all the elements of
power necessary to protect itself by itself. "Our policy
of ambiguity on nuclear arms has proved its worth, and it will
continue," Mr. Sharon added, without elaborating. . . Israel's
deterrent is probably the most sophisticated, our correspondent
says. It can be delivered by long-range ballistic missiles or
advanced warplanes. Some reports suggest that Israel is even
developing a submarine launched missile that might carry a nuclear
warhead.
Reuters (July 7): Israel, pressed to consider
a nuclear weapons-free Middle East, stressed its fear that Iran
is pursuing nuclear weapons and might use them against it, the
visiting head of the UN nuclear watchdog said on Wednesday. "They
(the Israelis) were expressing concern about Iran," International
Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei told reporters after
meeting Israel's nuclear energy commission director, other officials
and a former head of the Mossad secret service. . . ElBaradei
said his attempts to promote the idea of a nuclear weapons-free
zone in the Middle East ran up against Israeli concern about
Iran's nuclear ambitions and about the hostility to Israel of
some states in the region. "The majority of the countries
in the Middle East feel that there is this security imbalance
in the Middle East, this double standard," ElBaradei said
of the assumption that Israel has atomic weapons and other Middle
East states do not. "Here the Israelis are saying you cannot
even discuss that because we cannot lower our security threshold
before we have a comprehensive peace where we are fully accepted
as part and parcel of the region," he said. . . ElBaradei
has said repeatedly that "the jury is still out" on
whether Iran is seeking the bomb. Uzi Arad, director of Israel's
Institute of Policy and Strategy and an ex-senior Mossad official,
disagreed, saying it was time the IAEA stated openly that Iran
is pursuing nuclear weapons. "Anyone who suggests differently
is under illusions," Arad told reporters. "At which
point will the IAEA state the obvious (about Iran)?" ElBaradei
will meet Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Foreign Minister Silvan
Shalom on Thursday and analysts said Iran was likely to come
up in those talks.
Agence France Presse (July 8): Israel held fast to its
policy of ambiguity about whether it has nuclear weapons and
its refusal to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as UN
nuclear chief Mohamed ElBaradei concluded a visit. International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief ElBaradei had come to Israel
Tuesday urging the Jewish state to "clarify" whether
it has nuclear weapons and to join the non-proliferation regime
which his agency is mandated to verify. But speaking after ElBaradei
met with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, a senior Israeli
nuclear official said Thursday that there would be no change
in the government's longstanding "strategic ambiguity"
policy. . . ElBaradei said Sharon had "affirmed to me that
Israel's policy continues to be that, in the context of peace
in the Middle East, Israel would be looking favorably to the
establishment of" such a zone ". . . But Sharon did
not set a time-frame for Israel to back off on its refusal to
discuss such security issues while it is still facing attacks
from Palestinian groups and hostility from Iran, ElBaradei said.
The UN nuclear chief said "a dialogue on security issues
could be envisaged as part of the roadmap which has, as phase
two, a discussion of arms control issues in an arms control subcommittee
to be established under the roadmap. "Meanwhile, ElBaradei
said that while Israel rejected joining the NPT, officials had
told him the Jewish state was ready to sign an agreement on export
controls on nuclear technology sales.
Agence France Presse (July 8): ElBaradei was taken on a
flight over Israel by a senior air force official Wednesday,
in which he was told the Jewish state was vulnerable as it had
"no defensive depth because a plane can fly from one border
to the other in three-and-a-half minutes." During the flight,
the IAEA chief saw from afar the Dimona plant, where Israel is
believed to make the material for its nuclear warheads, but Israeli
officials said he had made no request to visit it.
Reuters (July 9): A leading Iranian cleric
on Friday criticized the head of the UN's nuclear watchdog for
allowing Israel to divert attention away from its presumed nuclear
arsenal by focusing talks on Iran's nuclear program. International
Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei ended a three-day
visit to Israel on Thursday during which the Jewish state continued
to refuse to admit or deny it has nuclear weapons under a policy
of "strategic ambiguity". International experts calculate
Israel has 100 to 200 warheads, based on estimates of plutonium
produced at its Dimona desert reactor. During the talks, Israeli
officials concentrated not on the presumed arsenal that makes
Israel the region's only nuclear power, but worries that arch-foe
Iran was developing an atom bomb and might one day use it on
Israel. "The Zionists have many warheads, and Mr. ElBaradei
goes there and instead of asking them to correct their behavior
they sit and discuss Iran," Ayatollah Mohammed Emami-Kashani
said during a Friday prayers sermon in Tehran. "These are
diverting attention from Israel to Iran which is only pursuing
technological aims," he said in comments broadcast live
on state radio.
Conclusion
The very short visit of the
IAEA chief ElBaradei to Israel ended on July 8. Even though he
tried to put the best face on his trip and make the IAEA look
like an impartial, powerful and independent agency, the chief
left Israel empty handed, humiliated and with his tail between
his legs. This is the lesson that the rest of the world learned
from the chief's comical trip to Israel: if you want to develop
and hang on to your nuclear weapons you must do the following:
1) Find yourself a very strong
partner, a kind of Godfather, whose aggressive and gangster-like
behavior and interests match yours, someone who will protect
your criminal activities at all costs and against all charges.
2) Never join any international
agreements, such as the NPT, and never admit to having nuclear
weapons.
3) If the IAEA chief ever shows
up, say "I don't know what he is coming to see"
and, of course, show him nothing.
4) If he dares to ask questions
about your nuclear weapons, change the subject by attacking another
country and say that that country supports the victims of your
colonial aggression (oops, sorry, I meant supports the "terrorists").
5) While you are at it, throw
in the argument that the country in question has missiles that
threaten Europe (remember the Iraqi missiles that could
be launched in 45 minutes and reach Europe?)
6) If you are asked to join
the family of civilized nations who have joined the NPT, or if
the chief says please, at least slow down your nuclear weapons
development policy, say that you will consider it only at the
end of a non-existent "roadmap to peace."
7) Finally, if you really,
really want to make the chief feel like he got something out
of his useless trip, put him on a plane, take him up a few thousand
feet, and show him your nuclear power plant below!
Sasan Fayazmanesh is a professor of economics at Fresno
State University.
Weekend
Edition Features for July 10 / 12, 2004
Kathleen
Christison
The Problem with Neutrality Between
Palestinians and Israel
Janine
Pommy Vega
Trail of the Comet: a Gathering of the World's Poets Against
War
Sherry
Wolf
From Maverick to Party Attack Dog: Howard Dean Gay-Bashes Nader
Saul
Landau and Farrah Hassen
A Transfer of Power, Sort Of
Michael
Donnelly
How to Steal an Election: the Green Version, 2004
Stanton
/ Madsen
Iraq Survey Group: Rumsfeld's al-Qaeda?
Richard
Lichtman
The End of Innocence: Reflections on American Pathology
Gila
Svirsky
Thank You, Your Honors: a Legal Blow to the Wall
Kurt
Nimmo
Clinton's Life
Toni
Solo
Empire-Speak: What Roger Noriega Really Means
Ron
Jacobs
The Black Panthers and the Rest
Camelo
Ruiz Marrero
Gene Warfare in Oaxaca: Genetic Mutation of Mexican Maize
Omar
Barghouti
Wither the Empire: Rise of a Global Resistance
Poets'
Basement
Curtis and Albert
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