U.S.-IRAN

The occasion of Tehran's report to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on September 21, 2009 that it is in the process of building a low-capacity second uranium enrichment plant near the holy city of Qom provided President Barack Obama with a new opportunity to backtrack on one of his outstanding presidential campaign promises of engagement and normalization of diplomatic relations with Iran. Such a report by a nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) signatory to the IAEA board, 18 months prior to the injection of gaseous nuclear material into the centrifuges, which are not installed in the new site yet, should have been welcomed by the IAEA Board and seen as a sign of sincerity and transparency.

On the contrary, at the G20 Economic Summit in Pittsburgh, instead of offering solutions to the world economic crisis, Obama, flanked by two junior lieutenants, French President Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Brown, exploited the old news of Iran's new uranium enrichment site to show off his newly-forged united front, not against the resistant forces in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, but for putting "Iran on notice."

On the basis of his arbitrary and misleading statements of the facts and the rules and regulations of the NPT and IAEA, as to the length of the period reporting in advance and the completion of a new nuclear enrichment facility, Obama, who is incapable of getting a public option healthcare proposal passed in a Congress with a so-called "democratic" majority, had the arrogance to condemn Iran for "concealing" the construction of the site, when in fact it was Iran which presented its report of the site to the UN watchdog agency on Monday – three days before Obama's announcement of a "secret discovery!"

But what are the rules and regulations of the IAEA in regards to constructing a new facility for enriching uranium for non-military application by NPT-member states? Under the currently valid IAEA safeguard agreement reached with Iran, the latter is obligated to report to the agency 180 days before the first introduction of nuclear materials into the system of centrifuges, rather than being obligated to report, as it is claimed by the U.S. government, any new nuclear installation 180 days before the start of construction work, the condition which was imposed on Iraq by the U.S. and its allies before the invasion.

Accordingly, Iran's new uranium enrichment plant in Qom, which is still under construction, cannot be labeled "secret" and therefore Iran could not be charged with violation of its safeguard agreement with the IAEA or disregard for the fundamentals of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) for beginning to build such a low capacity plant, with a maximum housing capacity of 3000 centrifuges.

It is imperative to underscore that the U.S. and the European "democracies" have never charged Israel with violation of international nuclear norms and never brought to the attention of the United Nation's Security Council that Israel is not a signatory of the NPT and has never made Israel's nuclear stockpiles to be inspected by the IAEA. Is it because the Jewish State of Israel is considered to be above international laws of the world community?

How is it that these leaders of the "free world" purposefully misrepresent the articles governing the relations between the nuclear agency and the NPT-member states, and believe they can misinterpret international laws to suit their aggressive national policy goals? These three gentlemen, headed by President Obama, tried to lead the international community to believe that their intelligence agencies "just discovered a secret underground plant" in Iran, (they had known about its existence for several years), but hoped to diplomatically "pre-empt" Iran, who had already publicly announced Iran's report about the facility to the IAEA. In their assertions, there was nothing farther from the truth.

G20 Theatrics a Flat Out Lie

The scenario outlined by these three "honorable" statesmen was that Iran has had a secret nuclear weapons facility that they as leaders of the mighty and intelligent nations knew all about for years and they even shared their findings with the Zionist leaders of Israel. This scenario played out on all the major western news media can only work with an ignorant and uninformed populace. Their scenario is a flat out lie, and will be proven wrong when the IAEA inspectors verify that there are neither working centrifuges nor radioactive materials on the site. Apparently, American, British and French intelligent political leaders and scientists have been wasting their human and material resources watching an underground tunnel that they now call a "secret nuclear weapons" facility. The ultimate objective of the U.S. government and its partners in deceit is to convince the American working class that Iran cannot be trusted because it has no respect for international covenants and only deserves to be treated savagely and/or subjected to the harshest regimes of sanctions and mistreatment.

In the short-run, there is a calculated effort by Obama to mount multi-national pressure on Iran over its lawful and legitimate plans. For weeks, if not months, Obama borrowing a page or two from George Bush's ghastly playbook, worked hard to create a "coalition of the willing." 1) The post-election unrest and its aftermath involvement of security forces in Iran provided a golden opportunity for Obama's administration to rally a united front of the imperialist nations against Iran's nuclear program and at its center the uranium enrichment industry. 2) In Eastern Europe, Obama scrapped the plans for a ballistic missile defense system with an eye to attract Russia to the coalition and finally, 3) he slapped tariffs on Chinese tires to pressure them to remain a silent opposition.

Whether Obama and company would be able to keep Russia and China immobilized with regard to the Iranian issue, remains to be seen. Put together, all this is one side of the equation. On the other side, stand the determined and revolutionary people and government of the Islamic Republic of Iran with its own logic and actual and potential forces domestically and internationally.

The U.S. vast propaganda juggernaut coupled with George Soros' financial backings and the innumerable funds made available by the National Endowment for Democracy have made the U.S. establishment in the eyes of especially some beneficiaries of these funds as untrustworthy and unreliable, so much so that it has convinced an Iranian professor at Penn State University, Fariborz Ghadar, to express his own words of wisdom by saying that "This is a very clever way of doing it... He played the cheating card. They are making Iran look really bad."

Hopefully, this professor is not teaching literature or logic.

AUTHOR

Ardeshir Ommani is an Iranian-born writer and co-founder of the American Iranian Friendship Committee (AIFC), www.iranaifc.com which advocates dialogue and peace between the U.S. and Iran. His articles of analysis on Iran-U.S. relations, and the U.S. economy can be viewed at: www.mathaba.net. The author may be contacted at: ardeshiromm@optonline.net.