Moscow in Nuclear Hot Water
// Iran Enters Nuclear Club; Iranian General Enters Russia
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stepped up the level of the Iranian nuclear crisis yesterday by reporting that his country has begun the industrial enrichment of uranium. He designated April 9 as a new national holiday, the Day of Nuclear Technology, in honor of Iran's entry into the global nuclear club. The clear determination of the Iranian authorities to exacerbate the confrontation with the international community has made the possibility of a military strike by the United States against Iran likelier than ever before. Another provocative gesture on Tehran's part was the visit to Moscow by an Iranian general whose name appears on the list of Iranian officials affected by UN sanctions.
Loud Repercussions from a Quiet Visit
Yesterday the Iranian authorities launched a new sally against the UN Security Council, which voted on March 24 to impose new sanctions on Iran for its refusal to suspend work on uranium enrichment. The propaganda charge was led by General Mohammed Bakr-Zolkadr, the Iranian deputy interior minister in charge of security issues, who recently returned from a visit to Moscow.
In an interview on Iranian television, General Zolkadr boasted that he had spent the entire previous week in the Russian capital after entering the country unhindered, in violation of the UN sanctions. "Despite the fact that resolution #1747 bans travel for several members of the Revolutionary Guards of the Islamic Republic, including me, I visited Russia without any problem whatsoever," he reported proudly. General Zolkadr described an exceptionally warm welcome from the Russian Federal Border Guards (FPS) and the Emergencies Ministry (MChS). According to the Iranian general, he discussed issues of border control with officials from the FPS, particularly the watery border between Russia and Iran on the Caspian Sea. In the MChS, the two sides exchanged experience in coping with the aftermath of natural disasters. Having mentioned that his hosts in Moscow had also voted for the introduction of new sanctions against Tehran, the general concluded that "the visit demonstrates the ineffectiveness of the resolution."
The general's openness in giving his interpretation of his visit to the Russian capital provoked a loud response from the international community. Media outlets around the world immediately began to vie with each other to be the first to report that Moscow had violated the UN Security Council resolution by receiving the senior Iranian official.
Mr. Zolkadr is in fact on the blacklist of 15 Iranian officials under sanction by UN resolution #1747. However, during the discussion of the resolution in the Security Council, Moscow and Beijing insisted that harsh sanctions against senior members of the Revolutionary Guards of the Islamic Republic would have no effect on efforts to frustrate Iran's quest for its own piece of the nuclear pie. In the final draft of the document, the wording was significantly toned down, and the text contains nothing about a "ban on travel." Instead, the resolution calls on all governments "to exercise vigilance and restraint regarding the entry into or transit through their territories of individuals who are engaged in, directly associated with, or providing support for Iran's proliferation-sensitive nuclear activities or for the development of nuclear weapon delivery systems." The resolution further states that governments are obliged to report visits from such persons to the Security Council.
The Iranian general thus knowingly misrepresented the content of the Security Council resolution and exposed Moscow as having violated the resolution. In response, the Russian authorities, who had until yesterday had kept Mr. Zolkadr's visit quiet, were obliged to react to his scandalous statements. "Legally, the visit is unimpeachable," said Andrei Krivtsov, the deputy head of the Information and Press Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry. "The UN sanctions in question do not prohibit visits by Iranian officials; they only stipulate mindfulness in relation to guests from Iran who have ties to the Iranian nuclear program. In that sense, everything is above board with Zolkadr – the nuclear program was not discussed during his visit." Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin claimed that Moscow had informed the Sanctions Committee of the UN Security Council about the general's visit well in advance. Thus, the Russian side did not violate any UN agreements in hosting Mohammad Bakr-Zolkadr.
Yesterday the US State Department declined to comment on General Zolkadr's talks in Moscow, saying that all of the facts on his visit are not in yet. However, a Kommersant source reported that the American side will release a statement today expressing disappointment at the Moscow talks.
The Day of "Nuclear Bells"
The worsening situation concerning the Iranian atom has obliged Tehran to look for new ways of fending off increasing international pressure. The most open show of the Iranian authorities' intention to ignore resolution #1747 was yesterday's much-feted introduction of a new national holiday: the Day of Nuclear Technology. The holiday is officially in honor of the red-letter day of April 9, 2006, when the Iranian government first announced that the country's scientists had successfully achieved the enrichment of uranium.
Celebrations of the Day of Nuclear Technology began early yesterday morning in Iran's schools, where "nuclear bells" were rung during festive ceremonies. Representatives of the Iranian government also joined the country's schoolchildren in celebrating the success of Iran's nuclear scientists.
Iran's loudest "nuclear bell" was the celebration in the "cradle of the Iranian atom": the nuclear facility at Natanze, 300 kilometers from Tehran. The Iranian authorities invited foreign ambassadors to the facility for the occasion, promising to show them the Iranian "nuclear miracle" of the assembly for the enrichment of uranium. A long line of cars with diplomatic plates moved out of the Iranian capital early in the morning, although the ambassadors from the countries of the European Union decided to stay home in protest against Iran's development of its nuclear program.
The warm-up to the Iranian president's address extolling the program in Natanze was a speech by vice-president Gholamreza Aghazadeh, who is also the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Agency. "We are gathered here by the grace of God to mark the commissioning of the project to enrich uranium at a industrial level," he said.
A year ago, Iranian nuclear scientists working at Natanze succeeded in enriching uranium to a level of 3.5% of the radioactive U-235 isotope, which is low-level enrichment suitable for the production of fuel for atomic power plants. Soon after that, the Iranians announced that the country's laboratories had produced uranium enriched to 4.8%.
By that point, Iran was only steps away from beginning the production of enriched uranium in industrial quantities. A hint that the moment was not far away was given by President Ahmadinejad during a speech in February of this year on the occasion of the 28th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, when he promised that "great successes" in the nuclear sphere would be announced before April 9.
Yesterday the Iranian president kept his word. "With great pride I announce that our beloved country has entered the nuclear club and now can produce nuclear fuel on an industrial level," he said at the ceremony at Natanze. He also took the opportunity to repeat his assertion that the Iranian nuclear program is peaceful and told his audience, "in accordance with the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, Iran has the right to the creation of nuclear fuel."
Tehran Burns Its Bridges
The celebrations on the occasion of the Day of Nuclear Technology and the accompanying announcements of Iran's entry into the club of nuclear powers elevates the Iranian nuclear crisis to a whole new level. UN Security Council resolution #1747, which took effect on March 24, 2007, gives the Iranian authorities two months to "mend their ways" – i.e., to suspend work on enrichment. However, no more than two weeks later, Tehran is burning its bridges by proving that it sees no reason to cease enriching uranium.
This forces the international community to contemplate what action will be taken when the ultimatum expires at the end of May. In particular, there will be some difficult questions for the proponents of a softer approach, Russia and China, who are still insisting on purely economic measures. With its actions, Iran is adding fuel to America's argument in favor of a harsher response, since milder measures are counterproductively serving only to increase Iran's resolve to go nuclear. With his remarks about Iran's entry into the nuclear club, President Ahmadinejad has made a resolution of the Iranian nuclear crisis by military force all the more likely.
Sergei Strokan, Vladimir Solovyov, and Dmitry Sidorov (Washington)
All the Article in Russian as of Apr. 10, 2007
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