Sympathy for the devil

I find myself in the awkward position of being sympathetic to Iran when it comes the the issue of enriching uranium. Don't get me wrong, I would not be happy with a regime that threatens to wipe other nations of the face of the earth (Israel) having the capabilities to do so. But lets just try and look at the wider picture here.

Having nuclear capabilities military puts you in the league of most powerful nations. Suddenly your opinion matters and others cannot very easily impose their opinions on you. It is the key to adulthood among nations. The 5 permanent members of the Security Council are the first five countries to have developed nuclear capabilities. In itself this is not very controversial. These 5 nations were the most powerful, and military advanced and so they were awarded this position, that's how things work in the world.

Then in 1968 the non proliferation treaty was proposed (and signed by 188 states in subsequent years). This is a very dodgy treaty if you ask me. It basically states that the pursuit of nuclear military capabilities is not allowed, except for those 5 countries who already have them (US, USSR, China, France and the UK). That doesn't sound very fair now does it? It leaves both the US and USSR (at that time) free to develop close to 6 million nuclear warheads, but slaps the wrist of any nation outside the 5 named earlier that even dream of researching the same capabilities.

When it comes to responsible use, there does also not seem to be any logic to this treaty. Of course we do not want Iran to have nuclear weapons, because we are afraid they might use them! Well... the only nation that has a proven track record of deploying nuclear weapons is actually the US. And this is not just ancient history, as the US have already declared that they would be perfectly happy to deploy nuclear warheads in response to a non-conventional attack by "rogue states". France also has stated that an incident of state-sponsored terrorism on France could trigger a small-scale nuclear retaliation aimed at destroying the "rogue state's" power centres. So our 5 legal nuclear powers are not more responsible, or more trustworthy, they just happened to get there first. And not they are desperately trying to prohibit anyone else getting there as well.

This is why India, Pakistan and Israel never signed the treaty. All 3 are now known to have nuclear capabilities (although Israel has not publicly admitted the fact). Many countries are very close to nuclear capabilities, including Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia even stated that due to the worsening relations with the US, it was forced to consider developing their program further, which they have rumoured to have done with the aid of Pakistan.

So what then is all the upheaval about Iran’s nuclear program? Of course the west doesn't like Iran, but that is not an objective legal reason. Iran at least has signed the non proliferation treaty, and has allowed a degree of openness and inspections with regards to its programs, unlike Israel, India and Pakistan. I think the only difference is that Iran and North Korea are the only 2 countries developing nuclear capabilities that do not pay hommage to the western powers. Pakistan and the Saudies have bought of their disobedience with intense cooperation with the US in the war against terrorism, we all know Isreal will never be reprimanded, and India is simply to big a piece for anyone to chew.

This being the case, I think Iran has as much right to pursue a nuclear agenda as Israel or Pakistan (or Canada and the Netherlands for that matter). I hold little sympathy for the regime, but I must side with them on this particular matter.