At a time when Washington Summit mounted extreme pressure on Iran to give up its nuclear enrichment programme, Iran called a summit in Teheran to assert its keenness to a greater cause of world peace – full disarmament and abolition of nuclear weapons, observes SHAFAQUE ALAM.
With much fanfare and global media hype the 2-day Nuclear Summit at Washington came to an end. But what went unreported is the Tehran Nuclear Summit held just a week after the Washington meet, in Tehran.
American President Barack Obama convened the Nuclear Summit in Washington, and felt honoured at the presence of 47 countries, which came altogether to the point of non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and exerted acute pressure on Islamic Republic of Iran to give up its activities of nuclear enrichment programme.
Similarly, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad convened the Summit in Tehran, and gathered support of 60 countries and came to a point to see the world free from nuclear weapons. Interestingly, America did not invite its counterpart Iran, a signatory to the Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT), to its summit but Iran did invite America.
Remarkably, Washington Summit stressed on the non proliferation of nuclear weapons whereas Iran on total disarmament of nuclear weapons, and advocated “nuclear energy for all, nuclear weapons for none”.
Some critics gauged that America is planning to thrash Iran, and the Nuclear Summit was convened to win the support of world leaders as it did before Afghanistan and Iraq wars.
Iran convened the meeting, gathered support of numerous countries, and showed the world that might is not right but right is what is really right.
Iran says nuclear weapons are against religious beliefs and defensive doctrine. It also advocates that Islam prohibits the killing of even a single life without any reason. Iran has repeatedly clarified that its uranium enrichment programme is merely to meet the pressing needs of energy in the country, and wishes to see the world free from atomic weapons.
But ironically Iran’s repeated pleas fell on the deaf ears as the Western allies, advocating peace and stability, suspect that Iran has been hiding something from them.
Here one fails to understand why these mighty nations are mounting acute pressure on Iran to support them in non proliferation of nuclear weapons at the time when Iran is keen to lend its support for full disarmament and abolition of nuclear weapons altogether.
Iran, notably a signatory to the NPT, which does not possess even a single nuclear bomb, has been meted out extreme discrimination globally, as the America and its allies are regularly scrutinising its nuclear programmes while lending blind support to Israel, already armed with nuclear weapons, which is yet not a signatory to NPT.
Iran claims to have support of the majority of 192 members of the United Nations. It also succeeded in getting a draft resolution approved by the United Nations General Assembly on nuclear disarmament in October 2009, with support of more than 100 nations including non-nuclear members of the NPT, despite strong opposition from the countries advocating peace and tranquillity in the world, having already substantial number of nuclear weapons. The resolution also urged all the countries armed with nuclear weapons including Israel to join NPT and allow the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to inspect their nuclear facilities.
Iran, in a daring move, has shown to the world that the era to rely on nuclear weapons has come to an end. There is an immediate need to set up an independent body to supervise the nuclear disarmament and also the destruction of all atomic weapons starting from America’s nuclear weaponry.
It is noteworthy that out of 192 members of United Nations currently the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, France and China are enjoying Veto power, which is gross injustice to the other members. This privilege shows that these five nations can do whatever they like but can use their veto power when other countries do the same.
The Tehran conference also urged that such talks on nuclear disarmament should be controlled by states that do not have atomic weapons and not by the countries armed with weapons of mass destructions or America, because their involvement will prevent any new treaty from being fair. It stressed that America has a deceptive policy which falsely claims to be advocating the non proliferation of nuclear arms and actually doing nothing substantive for this cause.
China and Russia sent their deputy foreign ministers to the Tehran Nuclear Summit. Iraq, Turkey, Lebanon, Oman and Syria, its main allies, also sent their foreign ministers, and Pakistan’s ambassador in Teheran also attended the meeting. India and France also recorded their presence in the Tehran Summit. In a pleasant move several countries, including Ukraine, Mexico and Canada, declared their intention to give up uranium enrichment programmes as a step toward making it harder for terrorist groups to acquire the key ingredient in the making of atomic weapons.
After hosting the Washington Summit successfully, American President Barack Obama might have patted his back for achieving the feat. But it could be a greater achievement if, instead of convening the meeting on non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, he could have called a meeting on Destruction of Nuclear Weapons.
If America is really a sincere and truly concerned about world peace, it should initiate now and take concrete steps for nuclear disarmament by first destroying its nuclear weapons and then mounting pressure on its allies, especially Israel to destroy their nuclear weapons.
Nobel laureate Barack Obama should do something concrete to justify the award he was honoured with last year. Total disarmament of nuclear weapons is really a herculean task for him but if he succeeds, it is likely that again he will be a strong nominee for the prestigious Nobel Prize for Peace, of course a second time.