Nothing will stop Iran from enriching uranium

Abu Dhabi: The reality of Iran pursuing a nuclear programme was unavoidable, said an Iranian-American political pundit on Wednesday.

"[There is] nothing on earth that will stop Iran from enriching uranium. Why would it as they are within the bounds of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty," said Reza Aslan, a Muslim writer and contributing editor for The Daily Beast, as well as a faculty member at University of California-Riverside.

Aslan, known among political scholars for his insight on the Iranian nuclear issue, as well as for his often radical ideas about how to solve it, said in a lecture organised by the New York University — Abu Dhabi, that negotiations between the international community and Iran are "useless".

The remarks came on the backdrop of the Geneva talks between Iran and six world powers, which ended with an agreement to meet again early next year in Turkey.

He was also speaking a day after the UAE's Foreign Minister, Shaikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, struck a conciliatory note on Iran, saying he hoped the UN would lift sanctions on the Islamic Republic. But added that the country has to come clean aboutits nuclear programme.

"Negotiations are useless for three reasons: First, people at the table have vastly different goals for the talks. The Iranians want to pursue a ground bargain. They want everything on the table. Will talk nuclear [programme] if they must, but really want to talk about issues concerning them.

The international community, however, only want to talk about nuclear programme," he said.

US desire

Secondly, Aslan said, the US is yet to decide what they actually want from Iran. Do they want Iran to stop the enrichment programme? Or prohibit weaponisation of the programme? American negotiators want to halt the nuclear programme.

"Third, US and the international community have yet to ask the most important question about the nuclear programme — Why [does] Iran want to develop nuclear weapon or at least push its programme to the point of being weaponised and stop there? Why, better yet, why wouldn't it?"

Aslan argued as much as its true that Iran poses a national security threat to America, it is equally true that America poses a national security threat to Iran.

"Iran is literally surrounded and encircled by American troops in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkey, Iraq, Kuwait and Oman and let's not forget the three massive warships in the Gulf. Iran feels threatened, under siege," Aslan said.

Aslan negated the idea that Iran would not handle nuclear power properly if it obtained it.

"Anyone who says that Iran will commit suicide with its nuclear power is a moron and has no business in discussion," he said.

Aslan criticised the United States for giving financial support to other countries who hoped to develop nuclear weapons.

"India and Pakistan have not paid for illegal weapons program. The US continues to shield Israel's nuclear program from the international community, although it did sanction Pakistan very briefly for its program, but has given $20 billion in direct military aid," he said.

"We signed a nuclear trade deal with India, that will only enhance its weapons program, in direct violation of the first article of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which we ourselves wrote," he said.

The NPT states that the transfer of nuclear technologies can only be made if the receiving country's nuclear programs are not being used for the development of weapons.

Aslan suggested that the United States needs to find a new approach when it comes to dealing with Iran’s nuclear aspirations.

"How do we make [Iran] not want nuclear weapons? That is pretty much our only option."

He praised US President Barak Obama's decision to disable the Revolutionary Guard, a branch of the Iranian military - thus destabilising the regime.

He said that the regime used the Revolutionary Guard as a "personal mafia," and that shutting it down would be a far more effective approach than issuing sanctions to stop Iran from capitalising on its nuclear programme.

"The Revolutionary Guard controls almost everything in Iran, and this is hurting the people. Obama's policies take the Revolutionary Guard out of the picture and promises to give the people what they want, and takes away control from the regime."