By: Richard Rousseau
Since 2002, the year the world first became aware of Iran’s nuclear program, the international community has engaged in grueling negotiations with Tehran to ensure that this program is, and remains, a civilian one and does not become a covert means or mechanism, as many fear, for developing nuclear weapons.
While Iran repeatedly confirms the peaceful nature of its nuclear activities and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei reiterates that the Islamic Republic, considers nuclear weapons as immoral and contrary to Islamic precepts, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in its latest report, says it is “increasingly concerned” about “the possible military dimension” of the Iranian nuclear program. (1) Meanwhile, an armed intervention by Israel becomes a more realistic scenario with each passing day.
After a stalemate that lasted fifteen months the P5 +1 countries (the five permanent members of UN Security Council, China, France, United Kingdom, Russia and the United States, plus Germany) resumed meetings with an Iranian delegation led by Said Jalili on April 14 in Istanbul and May 23 in Baghdad.
Despite the lack of concrete results, the meeting in Istanbul saw the return of Tehran to the negotiating table without any preconditions. Under strong international pressure, Iran actually abandoned its two main conditions before it would agree to sit down and engage in talks: the removal of the international sanctions and an unconditional acceptance of its right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes.
Read the full story at Eurasia Review