What the nuclear conflict with Iran is really about

Thought I'd post this excerpt of my Feb 2010 interview on Counterspin for the sake of keeping this issue on the front where the corporate media doesn't want to acknowledge it:

CS: Well, and let's take it from there because the explicit concern everywhere throughout the conversation is that Iran will make a bomb, is on its way to making a bomb, taking the first step to making a bomb, and then attack someone, maybe Israel. But you have written that you don't actually think, in the bigger picture, that the fight is really about nuclear weapons proliferation at all—that there really is another conflict going on here, another tension. What do you think is really going on?

Safdari: If you look at the facts objectively, Iran's nuclear program started under the Shah, this is a nuclear program that started with the blessing and the assistance of the United States of America. France provided Iran's enrichment program to it. The program was already under IAEA safeguards. Iran isn't doing anything that several other countries aren't already doing, Argentina and Brazil, for example. Nuclear weapons are basically an excuse in order to manufacture a crisis. The Iranians have already offered to place additional restrictions on their nuclear program, which would have addressed any concern, any real concern about nuclear weapons proliferation. However, these offers along with Iran's compromise offers and the 2003 faxed peace offer were all deliberately deflected and ignored.

So that raises the question, is nuclear weapons really the issue? Because if it was, we could have resolved this issue in the past, but we, the United States deliberately has kept this issue alive. Now we can speculate on a number of other actual motivations behind this conflict. One is certain nations that already own enrichment capability are trying to create a world in which they get to keep enrichment capability—the process of making fuel for nuclear reactors—while at the same time preventing other nations from acquiring this capability of making the fuel which is going to basically power the world in the near future when the oil runs out. This is a conflict that predates Iran's nuclear program.There is a longstanding conflict between developing and developed states over the control of the uranium enrichment cycle. This predates, again, this predates Iran's nuclear program. This is a conflict that has been going on in diplomatic circles at the United Nations since around 1980, when the United States first started its effort of limiting enrichment capability under the guise of preventing so-called nuclear weapons proliferation, when in reality what results is a monopolization of enrichment capability to a certain few nations. And the developing countries which have thus far defended Iran's program are simply not having any of that. That's one other agenda we can speculate is underneath this crisis, this manufactured crisis, over Iran's nuclear program.

CS: Well it certainly sounds like a worthy avenue for journalistic exploration. We've been speaking with Cyrus Safdari. You can find his work on the Web at IranAffairs.com.speaking with Cyrus Safdari. You can find his work on the Web at IranAffairs.com.

Comments

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I agree with your conclusions. "One is certain nations that already own enrichment capability are trying to create a world in which they get to keep enrichment capability. Iran isn't doing anything that several other countries aren't already doing, Argentina and Brazil, for example. Nuclear weapons are basically an excuse in order to manufacture a crisis". A country that has more than 5000 nuclear weapons, invaded and devastated several countries, should not profess morality and dictate other countries what has to be done or not especially when their nuclear program is peaceful. Also, keep in mind that the blood thirsty Zionist regime who is laughing at the whole world and has hundreds of nuclear weapons with the blessing of US, is another factor behind going after Iranian peaceful nuclear program. Their colonial and racist regime must stay as the dominant and the most ruthless regime in Mid East to be able to survive. Otherwise, Israel will collapse. So, Iran is a delightful diversion for the criminal Zionists.