ISRAELI attack on Iranian nuclear facilities on Friday (June 13) cannot be justified at all, as the past Iranian record has been one of reasonable cooperation with the international community regarding nuclear weapon concerns.
A notable example of this is the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) agreement, reached in July 2015. Within about six months of this agreement, a US government document stated that Iran had shipped 25,000 pounds of enriched uranium out of the country, dismantled and removed two-thirds of its centrifuges, removed the calandria from its heavy water reactor and filled it with concrete, apart from providing unprecedented access to its nuclear facilities and supply chains.
This is an obvious indication and confirmation that Iran has been prepared to go to any length to cooperate with the international community to address concerns regarding its nuclear weapons programme.
A review of these steps taken by Iran till January 2016 can be seen in a US government document of this date, based on a speech by President Obama and titled ‘The Historic Deal that will Prevent Iran from Acquiring Nuclear Weapons’.
It was only after this progress was confirmed that the US moved forward to implement its part of the deal relating to the removal of US sanctions on Iran (only nuclear-related sanctions, other sanctions continued to remain).
Another aspect to be noted is that the JCPOA was a very remarkable diplomatic achievement, giving wider hope for world peace, as apart from Iran, the US, Germany, France, the UK, and the European Community, Russia and China could also be brought in to ensure broad-based support for this.
Hence, it was a great regret for all those committed to world peace when the US under President Donald Trump withdrew from the JCPOA in 2018.
After this, the chances of the issue being resolved peacefully have been decreasing, given also the tendency of Israel and the Israeli lobby to be more aggressive against Iran.
During his second term, Trump has shown some inclination to resolve this issue peacefully, and there have been several rounds of discussions with Iran. However, there are several very hawkish elements in the US policy-making system, and often they tend to have a higher influence. What is more, unlike in 2015, Europe has been much less firm in its commitment to finding peaceful solutions. On the other hand, following the overall weakening of the Axis of Resistance in recent months due to a number of factors, Israel’s hawkish elements led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have been getting more insistent about attacking nuclear sites in Iran, and they have finally carried out this attack, expressing their intention to carry out more such attacks after the first attacks are reported to have harmed nuclear and ballistic missile sites, apart from killing a very senior military leader.
While the US has stated clearly that it is not a participant in these attacks, of course, it knew what was coming, as is evident from the earlier removal of military personnel dependents and other non-essential persons from US military sites and embassies at sensitive places in the Middle East. It is also clear that a firm no from the US could have prevented these attacks. After all, the peaceful possibilities of addressing nuclear weapon concerns had not been exhausted yet, and as past experience of 2015-17 had shown, peaceful solutions were certainly possible.
Iran, of course, is likely to respond in some way, and further disruption of peace in an already deeply disturbed and volatile region cannot be avoided up to a certain extent, and all that we can hope for is that this does not cross certain red lines to cause massive destruction. Any escalation here would certainly be terrible for the overall prospects for world peace, which is already endangered seriously at multiple points. The United Nations should intervene as quickly and as best as possible to contain the very serious new crisis by working to stop and contain within limits the new attacks and counter-attacks. All talk of one country destroying the other must be strictly avoided. All those committed to peace must do the best they can to contain and end this new crisis, which has come at a time when the world already has more than it can handle in terms of conflict and war-related crisis situations. This latest crisis is further confirmation of our oft-raised plea for creating a wider paradigm for peace and safety with justice instead of the world lurching rapidly and precariously from one dangerous crisis to another.
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Bharat Dogra writes extensively on environment, development and welfare issues. The views expressed here are the writer’s own, and Clarion India does not necessarily subscribe to them. He can be reached at: bharatdogra1956@gmail.com
