ABDULLAH KHAN analyses in the light of ground realities UN Security Council’s resolution that imposes sanctions on Iran, and suggests to the new UN Secretary-General to replace UN Security Council with UN Peace Council.
The United Nations Security Council has voted unanimously to a resolution that imposes sanctions on Iran, aiming to put pressure on Iran to halt nuclear enrichment work that could be used to build atomic weapons. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad termed the resolution “a scrap of paper”. Iran is claiming that its nuclear power programme is aimed at peaceful purposes and it has every right to civilian nuclear technology under NPT. It is being denied this right.
It is however important to note that no national or international agency found any credible evidence of a nuclear development programme in Iran. But US has been orchestrating the global campaign against Iran. Even if Iran has succeeded in acquiring the capability of low-grade uranium enrichment, the production of highly enriched uranium, necessary for a nuclear explosive devise, is an altogether different matter, which requires a large number of centrifuges and years of hard work before the device can be manufactured.
At least, as a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Iran is entitled to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes. It is hardly a secret that there is a very thin dividing line between using the same technology to make nuclear weapons. Israel crossed this line long ago. Ehud Olmert has finally admitted that his country possesses nuclear weapons, and North Korea has already tested a nuclear device. So have India and Pakistan. So, treating a country unfairly will only encourage it to flout its commitments to international treaties.
We should not forget that imposition of sanctions has rarely worked in the past to wean countries away from course of action objected by the international community. It is unlikely to work in the case of Iran either. UN sanctions in the past have had devastating effects like making Afghanistan and Iraq into quasi-medieval states. So, international community should realise that sanctions are not the solutions. These sanctions are only economic terrorism and also the worst form of terrorism perpetrated against the weak nations by strong ones.
There is no denying the fact that US has looked at the Islamic regime in Tehran as an implacable foe. Meanwhile, the credibility of the UN is also at stake. In the present scenario UN has become an instrument in the hands of US imperialists to dominate, bully and interfere in the affairs of Muslim countries to serve their vested interests. It is used as a guise to provide legitimacy for the brazen acts of the imperialists to oppress and suppress the people of Muslim countries.
The UN under the new secretary-general must take firm steps to dismantle the awful UNSC and replace it with UN Peace Council where all disputes and unilateral actions find resolutions by all possible means of diplomacy. In the case of Iran, the only way ahead for the international community is to opt for composite dialogue. There can be no future in confrontation.