HOME	Where the World's Views of America Come into Focus

September 13, 2005

Original Article (English)

Iran's President Gets Big Sendoff on His Way to 'The Great Satan,' for the Opening of the U.N. General Assembly

With less than a week to go before the next meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran and the international community are in the midst of the a final diplomatic countdown. The EU-3 [Britain, Germany and France] has nearly exhausted its strategy of offering Tehran carrots, such as trade and other incentives, while the United States is publicly urging other nations, including China, Russia and India, to use the stick of sanctions. Neither approach has swayed Iranian officials, who dismiss the EU offer as "an insult" and have warned of "consequences" if sanctions are imposed.

Behind all the rhetoric, the Iranian government has a legitimate point that the international community has failed to recognize: Iran's right to enrich nuclear fuel is guaranteed under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and previous agreements with Europe and the Iranians insist on protecting this right. The Islamic Republic believes that nuclear fuel is not only a sustainable energy source; it has a far less negative impact on the environment in terms of emissions that lead to pollution and global warming.

The Iranians are not alone in this belief: U.S. President George W. Bush, when touring a nuclear power plant in Maryland last June, called for America to start building nuclear power plants again as a means of "generating electricity and protecting the environment at the same time."

Protecting the environment is a major concern for the Iranian people. In fact, it is so important that it is enshrined in the Iranian Constitution. Article 50 of the Constitution reads: "The protection of the environment, in which the present as well as future generations have a right to a flourishing social life, is regarded as a public duty in the Islamic Republic. Therefore, economic and other activities which cause pollution or irreparable damage to environment shall be prohibited."

The biggest environmental problem that Iran currently faces is air pollution, and to tackle it, the Iranians have developed an overall national strategy that includes legislation to curb auto emissions as well as the development of emission-free energy sources. The pollution problem in Tehran is so bad that in 1998 and 1999, the government closed thousands of elementary schools and shut down the city center, when carbon monoxide levels reached as high as six times the acceptable levels set by the World Health Organization. With a population of over 68 million people, the pollution problem is likely to get worse. Thus the urgency of developing alternative energy sources ought to be apparent. To combat this problem Iran aims to expand nuclear and hydroelectric power.

But the United States and Europe are convinced that the real aim of Iran's nuclear program is to develop an atomic weapon. The burden of responsibility ought to be on the U.S. and the E.U. to prove this claim. If there is any evidence that Iran's real aim is to develop weapons, the Washington and Brussels ought to reveal it to the world. And any decision to impose punitive measures must be based on hard facts, not another weapons-of-mass-destruction fable.

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