Iran has invoked the present conflict, by its continual enrichment of uranium. The ongoing enrichment process is irrational, i.e. it has no purpose, UNLESS Iran may intend to build nukes – unless it wants to leave open the option, of building nukes.
It has a GROWING stockpile of 60% enriched uranium (i.e. with 60% of the fissile isotope, that will go bang). A bomb needs a minimum of 70% for the explosive chain reaction to take place.
This dreadful conflict could have been avoided, if Iran had taken the White House directive:
“Iran has to give up its program in a way that the entire world can see,” Waltz said. “It is time for Iran to walk away completely from its desire to have a nuclear weapon.”
If Iran means what it has been saying for decades, that it does not want nukes, then it could easily show that by having NO uranium enriched above 3% – or 5% as upper limit, as required for civilian use.
That would then be VISIBLE for the entire world to see -if they could simply say, Our uranium is below 5%, while above 70% is required for military use. Instead of that, Iran has seemed to want the machismo of continually wanting to show that it can do the enrichment. Why?
‘We have a perfect right to do this’, they say, and of course that is correct. As a general comment, the world does not want two hostile nations near to each other with nukes, which gives a very short launch-on-warning, use-‘em-or-lose ’em scenario which is inherently unstable, giving each side about five minutes decision time. That’s why it has always been commendable that Iran has said it doesn’t want them.
Iran has been occupying the worst possible position, of not having nukes BUT keeping an option open. This war started THE DAY AFTER an angry IAEA report, accusing Iran of non-compliance in the matter of uranium enrichment. Iran seems to view its ever-continuing uranium enrichment as if it were some sort of negotiating chip, that it might agree to renounce it if, for example, sanctions against it were lifted.
The meaning and purpose of a nuclear program is shown NOT by the words of politicians, but by the process that is materially going on. ‘Undue’ enrichment means the IAEA inspectors are continually suspicious, so they keep wanting further inspections, LEADING TO the suspicion that the info they glean will be leaked to the US/Israel for its where-to-bomb decisions – such as assuredly did happen in the case of Iraq years ago.*
One must agree with the Russian view that:
“Iran, like all other countries, has the right to develop the peaceful atomic sector and peaceful nuclear energy and is taking important steps in this direction. And all this is happening in strict accordance with international law.”
But, that isn’t quite the point, is it? It had a ‘right’ to do what it has been doing – which has led to the war.
Tulsi Gabbard, the US director of National Intelligence, has said that the stockpile of 60% enriched uranium in Iran is ‘unprecedented’ in magnitude – though, she added, it is not ‘currently’ building a bomb. Let’s quote an informed source:
“Iran currently enriches uranium to 60% purity, in large quantities, and possesses the capacity to enrich that stockpile to 90% in 1-3 weeks. That capability is by far the most expensive industrial project in Iran’s history, one that Iran has prioritized above all other spending for 25 years, in opposition to the explicit desires of more than 70% of its own people, according to the regime’s own polling. Nuclear power generation requires 3.7% purity. There is no known use of 60% enriched uranium other than the creation of nuclear weapons.”
Does that enrichment process keep going merely because no politician has the resolve to stop it? It has already caused war to break out, and soon huge bunker-busting US bombs may endeavour to break up the deep-underground centrifuge machines. Iran has a choice, of continuing with its machismo posture of ‘we’ve got as right do this’ – or, move in the direction of world peace by diluting that enriched uranium.
Iran has stated and maintained its view that America is the ‘great Satan’ and ditto that it hopes Israel will ‘fade from the pages of history’ – immediately re-phrased by Israel as, It wants to wipe Israel off the map (as recently stated by Nigel Farage). Given these unfriendly positions it needs to be all the more careful in expressing its nuclear-weapons posture.
* And YES the IAEA DID leak co-ordinates of its newly-inspected nuclear sites in Iran to Israel, stated CIA and IAEA expert Larry Wilkerson (youtube.com/watch?v=oe6uEakC2kA at 5 minutes)
