Often Wrong - Give Iran Credit when it's Right (Folha, Brazil)
"Yesterday there was an unsigned Press TV article that said the expression 'international community'
is really a cover for the promotion of Zionism. Too much paranoia for my taste.
... The devilish detail of this is that, in the case of negotiations between
the 'international community' and Iran over Iran's nuclear program, it is the
Iranians who are in the right. ... Last weekend, they rejected a deal that
seemed imminent, refusing to accept the complete dismantling of their nuclear
program (a demand, it is true, of Israel)."
Tehran's point man and trouble shooter at nuclear talks, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. He and his government assert that Israel is the tail wagging the U.S. dog. Folha's Clóvis Rossi thinks there may be something to that.
It's
not easy to trust the Iranian regime, because it’s a dictatorship, and moreover,
theocratic. To strengthen the suspicion, just take a peek at Press TV,
a kind of Iranian CNN.
Yesterday,
for example, there was an
unsigned article that said the expression "international community"
is really a cover for the promotion of Zionism. Too much paranoia for my taste.
The
devilish detail of this is that, in the case of negotiations between the
“international community” and Iran over the Iranian nuclear program, it is the
Iranians who are in the right.
Last
weekend, they rejected a deal that seemed imminent, refusing to accept the
complete dismantling of their nuclear program (a demand, it is true, of Israel).
Let's
all agree that Iran has as much right to enrich uranium for civilian purposes as
the “international community” does to suspect that Iran's ultimate goal is The
Bomb.
There
seems only one formula for reconciling all suspicions: international
supervision to ensure that the program is indeed for civilian purposes.
Posted By Worldmeets.US
Iran
took an important step in this direction on Monday by signing an agreement with
the International Atomic Energy Agency for the inspection of its nuclear
facilities. Included in the package is the heavy water reactor in Arak, which allows for the use of plutonium for bomb making,
bypassing the compulsory restrictions on uranium enrichment that are necessarily
part of any agreement with the international community (specifically the U.S.,
Germany, United Kingdom, France, China and Russia, or in
diplomatic-journalistic jargon, the P5+1).
France,
for example, rejected the agreement being stitched together on Saturday precisely
because of the omission regarding Arak.
Even
if you want to continue believing that the Iranian regime lies 24 hours a day
and is negotiating the agreement just to rid itself of sanctions that damage
its economy (and its citizens), under these circumstances, an imperfect
agreement is still better than nothing.
U.S.
Secretary of State John Kerry made it clear on Sunday
that, “Each day that you don’t have an agreement, Iran will continue to enrich,
and Iran will continue to put centrifuges in and Iran will continue its
program.”
It
is clear, then, that if an agreement may not prevent Iran from pursuing The Bomb,
without one, it is certain that its search for one will continue incessantly
It
makes more sense to give the agreement a chance, even if it's not ideal, than
to continue pushing Iran to the wall through sanctions and the threat of a
military attack. Especially because so far, neither sanctions nor threats have prevented
its nuclear program from moving forward.
And
there may even be a bonus in making a deal, judging by what Iranian Foreign
Minister JavadZariftold
the site Al-Monitor: “If we
resolve the nuclear issue, it would pave the way for the resolution of other
issues.”
It’s
reasonable to assume that he is referring to the conflict in Syria, an
unprecedented human catastrophe.
Clovis Rossi is a special
correspondent and member of the Folha
editorial board, is a winner of the Maria Moors Cabot award (USA) and
is a member of the Foundation for a New Ibero-American
Journalism. His column appears in print on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays and
the Web version on Fridays. He is the author, among other works, of Special
Envoy: 25 Years Around the World and What is Journalism?
