Iran: Nuclear Proliferation: Outgoing and incoming Presidents of Iran seem to be one on nuke empowerment

UPDATE July 24:

Iran Nukes - students & academics rally to support regime, and to enforce the continuity between outgoing Prez Khatami and incoming Prez Amhadenijad, making sure policy against the negotiators for the EU - Britain, France, and Germany - remains steady in the country (were there doubt in any quarters). Iran Students: Restart uranium program, Yahoo News, July 23, 2005



MAIN BLOG ENTRY July 23:

Iran, a signatory to the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty, already back in November 2004, froze

"all uranium fuel work, including activities at Isfahan and Natanz, ... as part of an agreement with the European Union’s big three powers Britain, Germany and France.

The EU trio and Iran failed to reach a final agreement on Iran’s nuclear program at new talks in London on Friday night but agreed to continue the negotiations at a later date.

The EU trio has warned Tehran it will back U.S. calls for Iran’s nuclear case to be sent to the Security Council.

By stopping short of resuming the actual enrichment of uranium, a process that can be used to make bomb grade fuel, Iran hopes to avoid such a showdown, a senior EU diplomat in Tehran said.

So reported MSNBC in the online article, Iran says it’s set to resume nuclear work - Talks over future of nuclear program fail to reach agreement, April 30, 2005.

(It should be noted that Iran is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty, where as India, with which the USA has been cooperating in nuclear matters recently, has never been a signatory, and has made solemn commitments to President Bush and the US Congress that it is devoted to peaceful uses, and would only use the nukes it has as a weapon in self-defense. See yesterday's refWrite blog on the sujbect.)

As to Iran, these prospects of "a summer of crisis" raise questions regarding what continity of approach may obtain between the outgoing President Mohammad Khatami and the incoming new President Ahmadinejad in regard to the Iran nuclear issue which has been champtioned by key leaders of Iran's bellicose Mullocracy.

The UK Christian leftwing ekklesia reports in an unsigned survey on "Iran’s new president a blow to US foreign policy," June 25, 2005:

The landslide victory of the conservative mayor of Tehran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in Iran’s presidential poll has thwarted US hopes of a satisfactory resolution to the nuclear standoff between the two nations. It has also challenged the effectiveness of America’s aggressive foreign policy stance in the region.

Western analysts were caught off guard by the scale of the defeat of moderate ex-president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, whose political pragmatism and dialogue with progressive students over democratisation held out hopes for further change in Iran.

Mr Ahmadinejad won the run-off in the two-stage election with 62 per cent of the 22 million votes cast on a turnout of 47 per cent. The average turnout in the two contests was 55 per cent.

But the nuclear issue is not the only concern of the new President. In contrast to earlier presidencies and the tone of approach of the mullahs at the top of the theocratic hierarchy's Council of Guardians and related figures, one mite want to characterize Ahmadinejad, however vaguely, as something of populist and advocate for the poor. It's felt that this theme in his campaign won him class-specific votes which otherwise mite have gone in the second round to "moderate" candidate Rajsanjani. The rhetoric and the votes certainly did not create absolute ease among the wealthy and successful corporate interests which have been titely allied up to this point with the theocratic leaderhship of the mullahs. Of course, the plus business interests can envision a silver lining in a peaceful use of nculear-generated electricity, which could be devoted in large part to expanded manufcturing and propsects for generating greater profits on its investments. That lines up class-interests for a possible conflict regarding the spoils of nuclearization. Thus, if nothing else, the Ahmadinejad win has generated hopes and even expectations that may run counter to the existing mullocrat-business alliance.

Ahmadinejad may have to fulfill in more ways than the prospect of nuclear energy raises for the supply of (cheap?) electricity to the poor. Will the promised cheap electricity be enuff to buy off further discontent from this quarter? Will the prioritization of electricity mesh with the priorities of the poor themselves? Yes answers do not come easily to mind. What else will the new President at least have to try to deliver? And what will the add-ons' effect be on the vested monied interests? And, then, what stresses may unfold within the mullah-business alliance, and within the ranks of the mullahs themselves?

Iran's nuclear stance, continued by Ahmadinejad, will have an impact upon a whole further set of issues and concerns.

Regional commentators say that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s victory is due to a number of factors – his appeal to poor voters and those opposing corruption, his defiance of what is seen as US aggression, and his positioning as an Iranian nationalist aligned to conservative Islamic forces but not imprisoned by them.

Suddenly in the last two days Iran has indicated there will be no lag in its nuclear time-table, according to the opposition blog Regime Change in Iran which today reports in its Daily Briefing feature online
Iran to resume uranium enrichment on August 1, drawing on a report in Iran Focus, July 21, 2005.

Iran’s decision to resume uranium enrichment is being made public after a string of hard-line pronouncements in recent days on Iran’s nuclear programme by senior Iranian officials, including outgoing President Mohammad Khatami.

"Iran's mastering of the fuel cycle is the right of the Iranian people... and is not negotiable," Khatami said in a speech on Tuesday.

The influential ultra-conservative daily Kayhan threatened the EU-3 in its Wednesday editorial that Iran would soon resume work at Isfahan and Natanz nuclear sites.

The editorial, entitled, “Don’t threaten us with the Security Council,” underscored Iran’s determination “to never abandon the use of nuclear fuel cycle technology”. The paper challenged France, Germany and Britain to send Iran’s nuclear file to the UN Security Council.

“Nothing will happen in the Security Council”, the ultra-conservative daily wrote. “The only thing that will happen is that we will be able to resume our suspended activities and quickly reach results. The Security Council will open up big avenues in front of us, but the Europeans will lose the only option that they now have”.

Document: Senior Iranian Official: Europe Will Recognize Iran's Right to a Limited Nuclear Fuel Cycle; Iran to Start Operations at Isfahan Uranium Conversion Facility

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A word further seems to be in order about the Brit Christian leftwing website mentioned, ekklesia, which bypassed all the critical issues about the Iranian election, and managed to turn its report into another mere anti-Bush piece. It should be given credit, nevertheless, for putting a few key factoids before readers regarding what's known of the Christian community in Iraq, and that is a concern for some readers of refWrite, we know.

Christians and other minority groups in Iran are wondering what the future will hold for them under the new, hard-line presidency. ¶ The majority of Iran's 250,000 Christian population are members of the Armenian Orthodox Church, with others belonging to Assyrian Church of the East. There are also small numbers of Chaldean Catholics, Anglicans and Protestants. ¶ Persians, Parthians and Medes were among the first new Christian converts at Pentecost. Since then there had been a continuous minority Christian presence in Iran. The Armenian Church has a recognised status, though its activities are carefully controlled. Protestant Christianity is seen as Western-aligned [by whom?, I ask] and treated accordingly [by whom?, I ask]."

- Politicarp

But once again ekklesia misses a crucial point, close enuff to bite it in the nose. On recent religious persecution in Iran of Pentecostal Christians, peruse this webpage of Bittersweet site. Will new President Mohammad Amadinejab continue the polcy of religious persecution conducted under outgoing hardliner Khatami?