The nuclear issue has been used as the pretext for preparing a new war in the region, just as the claims about "weapons of mass destruction" were employed in the run-up to the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Just as in Iraq a decade ago, the International Atomic Energy Agency's nuclear inspection regime serves as a cat's paw in preparing imperialist aggression. As in Iraq, the IAEA, manipulated by US, Israeli and Western European intelligence agencies, is demanding that Iran do the impossible: prove a negative, that it is not engaged in the development of nuclear weapons. And, similar to its operations against Baghdad, the IAEA is provoking Tehran by demanding that it submit to diktats that are in no way required of signatories to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Thus, the IAEA issued a report last Friday, stressing that a small amount of uranium metal was missing from a nuclear research site--far less than would be needed for building a bomb--and that Iran has increased its enrichment of uranium, not to the grade necessary for weapons, but rather for nuclear power plant fuel, perfectly legal under the treaty.
It also charged that a team it sent to Iran was denied permission to visit the Parchin military complex, located about 18 miles southeast of Tehran. The US has repeatedly incited the IAEA to demand inspections of the site, which is a non-nuclear facility and not subject to the agency's oversight. Between 2004 and 2006 Iran allowed inspectors into the sensitive facility after Washington charged that a bunker there was being used to test explosive triggers for nuclear bombs. The inspections found nothing of the kind.
Iranian officials, who have insisted that the country's nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, said that the IAEA team sent to Tehran was there to negotiate a "framework" for continued collaboration between the agency and Tehran and that it was not composed of nuclear inspectors and had no right to request entry to the Parchin facility.
Both Israel and the US seized upon the report as the pretext for escalating pressure against Iran. Netanyahu issued a statement saying that it "provides more proof that Israel's estimations are accurate, Iran is continuing with its nuclear program unchecked." Israel itself has refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty or accept any IAEA oversight of its nuclear facilities, which have produced an estimated 400 nuclear weapons.
"Iran's actions demonstrate why Iran has failed to convince the international community that its nuclear program is peaceful," White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said. Unless Iran submitted to US and Western European pressure, "its isolation from the international community will only continue to grow," he added.
Meanwhile, under the jingoistic headline "Britain's battle plan for war with Iran", Rupert Murdoch's Sunday Sun cited unnamed British "defense chiefs" as saying "it is a matter of WHEN not IF war breaks out--with 18 to 24 months the likely timescale."
In preparation for an attack on Iran, the paper reported, Britain will "fly an infantry battalion to the United Arab Emirates, our strong ally in the region."
The Sun added. "Under the war plan, a second sub armed with Tomahawk cruise missiles would be deployed. The RAF would send Typhoon and Tornado Jets to reinforce helicopter and transport plane crews already stationed in Qatar, Oman, Bahrain and the UAE."
The paper quoted a senior Whitehall official as saying: "MoD [Ministry of Defense] planners went into overdrive at the start of the year. Conflict is seen as inevitable as long as the regime pursue their nuclear ambitions."
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