An announcement from Iran signifying good news for Tehran and troubling news for Washington (and Europe and Tel Aviv):
Iran has successfully enriched uranium for the first time, a landmark in its quest to develop nuclear fuel, hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday. He insisted, however, that his country does not aim to develop nuclear weapons.
In a nationally televised speech, Ahmadinejad called on the West “not to cause an everlasting hatred in the hearts of Iranians” by trying to force Iran to abandon uranium enrichment.
“At this historic moment, with the blessings of God almighty and the efforts made by our scientists, I declare here that the laboratory- scale nuclear fuel cycle has been completed and young scientists produced enriched uranium needed to the degree for nuclear power plants Sunday,” Ahmadinejad said.
“I formally declare that Iran has joined the club of nuclear countries,” he told an audience that included top military commanders and clerics in the northwestern holy city of Mashhad. The crowd broke into cheers of “Allahu akbar!” or “God is great!” Some stood and thrust their fists in the air.
The U.N. Security Council has demanded that Iran stop all uranium enrichment activity by April 28. Iran has rejected the demand, saying it has a right to develop the process. The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, is due in Iran this week for talks to try to resolve the standoff.
The White House immediately responded that this was a move in “the wrong direction” and would endanger talks with the UN:
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Iran was “moving in the wrong direction” with its nuclear programme and if it persisted, the US would discuss possible next steps with the UN Security Council.
“If the regime continues to move in the direction that it is currently, then we will be talking about the way forward with the other members of the Security Council and Germany about how to address this going forward,” he said.
Iran’s announcement is a serious setback to UN Security Council efforts to have Tehran halt enrichment work. It could escalate a confrontation with Western powers leading to consideration of sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
The West fears Iran is using its power station programme as a smokescreen to build atomic bombs, a charge Tehran denies.
This is a classic case of a crisis that is beyond White House policy makers’ or American politicians’ control. When reports surfaced this weekend claiming that President George Bush was preparing a war against Iran and that tactical nuclear weapons were an option, Bush and other officials quickly scrambled to deny the reports and insist that they were still giving diplomacy a chance. Bush called the reports “wild speculation” (but some also noted that he did not totally deny them). The underlying assumption in these reports was that Washington could determine what came next and when.
Some suggested that those reports were essentially psych-ops, designed to scare Tehran into being more flexible and willing to listen to Washington and the UN. If so, the reports clearly haven’t worked:
Iran shrugged off reports that the United States is drawing backup plans for military action, saying yesterday they were an attempt to scare it into halting its nuclear program and warning any attack would bring a ”suitable response.”
A top European Union official, meanwhile, rejected any use of force against Iran in the confrontation over its nuclear program.
But Javier Solana, the EU foreign policy chief, recommended the 25-nation bloc consider sanctions against Tehran — raising the possibility of international punishment even if the US and Europe cannot persuade the United Nations to impose such measures.
The statements came as the chief of the UN nuclear watchdog agency, Mohammed ElBaradei, was due to visit Iran this week for talks on the standoff. Officials with his International Atomic Energy Agency have said he is hoping to win at least partial concessions from Iran. IAEA inspectors are currently in Iran visiting two key facilities.
So the question now becomes: what next? Bush & Co. have backtraced on the earlier reports, insisting these were mere contingency plans (even though the reports suggest otherwise). But it’s clear that the tempo of this crisis is now being determined not in Washington — but Tehran. Question: will Israel continue to be patient or does all of this increase the chance that it might try some kind of pre-emptive action?
UPDATE: We wouldn’t say we have a crystal ball BUT:
Israel warned the international community on Tuesday not to delay in dealing with Iran after the Islamic republic announced that it had enriched uranium for the first time. The U.S. said Iran was moving in the “wrong direction.”…..
….Israel said the announcements on Tuesday should prove the “true nature” of the Iranian program and spark concerns about the timeline.
“Iran’s announcement serves as a further example of the real danger in delaying concrete diplomatic measures in the face of the continuing Iranian refusal to comply with international demands to stop its nuclear activities,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev.
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Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.