I know I have promised to blog on the latest weaponisation development regarding Iran but I’ve been swamped with other stuff. However, semester ends this week so I expect to get the time to review this.
At any rate the IAEA has drawn up and is circulating to the UNSC and the Board of Governors the latest safeguards report on Iran which is eagerly anticipated both for what it has to stay about what is usually referred to as the “alleged studies” on RV development for nuclear warheads and related weaponisation developments and reports that Iran is developing a new more advanced IR-3 centrifuge (i.e. a successor to the Pakistan P-2 design). Anyway, the IAEA has released a press release which states that
…The IAEA Board of Governors will discuss the report when it next convenes in Vienna on 2 June. The report´s circulation is restricted and cannot be released to the public unless the IAEA Board decides otherwise…
Hopefully we won’t have to wait as I am sure ISIS will leak it as usual. It would seem as if someone has leaked it already for AFP reports that
…The report, to be discussed by the IAEA’s board of governors at a June 2-6 meeting, said intelligence from a number of sources suggest Iran has conducted the studies. Iran has repeatedly dismissed the allegations as “baseless” and the intelligence as “forged”.
The IAEA demanded that Iran, which already faces UN Security Council sanctions over its refusal to halt uranium enrichment, disprove the allegations.
“Substantive explanations are required from Iran to support its statements on the alleged studies and on other information with a possible military dimension,” the report insisted.
“The alleged studies … remain a matter of serious concern. Clarification of these is critical to an assessment of the nature of Iran’s past and present nuclear programme.”The IAEA “is continuing to assess the information and explanations provided by Iran. However, at this stage, Iran has not provided the agency with all the information, access to documents and access to individuals necessary to support Iran’s statements.”
The IAEA “is of the view that Iran may have additional information, in particular on high explosives testing and missile-related activities, which could shed more light on the nature of these alleged studies and which Iran should share with age…
For its part Iran is claiming that it has answered these allegations but it would seem not. It seems, given the citations of the US ambassador to the IAEA in the AFP report, that it was the US delegation that leaked it.
Hopefully, ISIS will leak the thing in the next couple of days. It would be a shame if we have to rely on AFP.
3 Comments
hey Marko. im doin this project on What can lead the government of the variuos countries to stay away from the nuclear weapons…
i knw its disarmament n confidence build around mutual trust n all…can u suggest some othr ways..sum out of box solution for this problem…?
See the following link from ICAN for an executive summary for “Securing Our Survival” which calls for a nuclear weapons convention.
If you want an out of the box solution see Schawrz and Derber’s “The Nuclear Seduction: Why The Arms Race Doesn’t Matter and What Does”. They critique what they refer to as “weaponitis” and the standard calls for the abolition of nukes, of the they type to which you refer, they would see as being manifestations of weaponitis. From there you can construct an out of the box solution.
The entire book is online at
http://www.escholarship.org/editions/view?docId=ft1n39n7wg&brand=ucpress
They would argue for deep seated underlying structural reforms to the system of international relations.
Perhaps the solution is simple; democracy. See Robert Dahl on guardianship and nuclear weapons; see Janne Nolan on The Guradians of the Arsenal; see Kosta Tsipis in his “Arsenal”. See the book “The Amatuer Strategist”.
All suggest that nuclear weapons is by and large entrusted to and justified by a narrow technocratic elite who basically share the same perceptions and these perceptions are one’s that are not necessarily shared by the public.
So, if actual nuclear weapons policy was made accountable to the public in the nuclear weapon states, including the US, we would get abolition.
See if that out of the box solution flies.
Compare the actual IAEA report with the media’s presentation of the report at IranAffairs.com