Living dangerously

Khaleej Times:

7 August 2005

WITH Iran yesterday rejecting the new set of proposals presented by the European Union persuading the country to give up its nuclear programme in return for a host of incentives, the crisis appears to have entered a dangerous phase. The rejection of EU proposals — offering economic, technological and political incentives to compensate for Teheran’s nuclear work — by Iran means the country could be hauled before the United Nations Security Council and punished with political and economic sanctions.

Hardly an enticing proposition for the Islamic republic already living in splendid isolation since the Islamic Revolution a quarter century ago.

Frankly speaking, the EU proposals, presented in a 34-page document, offer Iran just about everything it could have asked for. Short of helping Iran produce nuclear weapons, the EU proposals offer all possible help in civil nuclear power generation and research programme. Besides, Iran has been promised access to Western technology, trade preferences, foreign investment, and regional security guarantees. In return, Iran has to stop all uranium/ plutonium enrichment activity that could lead to nuclear weapons. This appears to the only setback for Iran. However, this shouldn’t worry Iran if it is not, as it claims, interested in developing nuclear weapons.

To be fair to the EU, its suggestions are pragmatic and balanced. Even the US, which has all along questioned the EU attempts to resolve this business diplomatically and peacefully, has hailed the proposals as reasonable. More importantly, Washington for the first time has accepted the idea that Iran could have civilian nuclear programme. This is a major shift in US policy for which the credit should go to the fabled European diplomacy and its nuanced approach to the art of realpolitik.

Which is why it is a pity that Iran should reject the apparently sensible EU initiative aimed at avoiding another dangerous crisis in the already volatile Middle East without offering any credible reasons. What makes Teheran reject the EU offer if it is not — as the US suspects — bent on developing nuclear bombs? If nuclear energy for peaceful purposes is what Iran is looking for, why not accept the EU offer to help it with the nuclear power generation and research?

As a European diplomat put it yesterday, Teheran faces a stark choice: The first is the right choice, the second is the wrong choice. If Iran chooses the second choice it can mean only one thing — that it seeks nuclear weapons. By contrast the first choice offers a series of incentives.

Teheran’s moment of truth is here. And it has to decide soon.