Security
Council Bows
To US Pressure
By Peter Symonds
31 March 2006
World
Socialist Web
After
three weeks of behind-the-scenes US bullying, the UN Security Council
unanimously adopted a statement on Wednesday calling on Iran to halt
its uranium enrichment program and giving the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA) 30 days to report back. Although amended at the insistence
of Russia and China, the statement provides Washington with the pretext
for escalating the confrontation with Tehran and its threats of punitive
sanctions and military action.
John Bolton, the US ambassador
to the UN, immediately seized on the vote as “an unambiguous signal
to Iran that the Security Council, charged with the maintenance of international
peace and security under the Charter, is now dealing with the issue.”
Ruling out any possibility of compromise, he belligerently warned that
the US would be “back on the 31st day” in the UN Security
Council “given the Iranian record to date of consistently flouting
the International Atomic Energy Agency.”
The UN statement is riddled
with the same glaring contradictions and rank hypocrisy as the preceding
IAEA resolutions on Iran’s nuclear programs pushed through by
the Bush administration. It begins by “reaffirming its commitment”
to the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and to the right of all
states “without discrimination” to use nuclear energy for
peaceful purposes. It then, however, goes on to express “serious
concern” over Iran’s decision to resume research into uranium
enrichment, even though such activities are not banned under the NPT.
Three years of intrusive
IAEA inspections have failed to produce any conclusive proof that Iran
is seeking to produce nuclear weapons. Lack of evidence, however, has
not stopped the US from insisting that Iran not only suspend, but completely
abandon, its research and development of uranium enrichment as part
of plans for an extensive nuclear energy program. Washington has steadily
backed Tehran into a corner, at each turn dismissing its efforts to
comply with the IAEA and raising provocative new objections.
By contrast, just weeks ago,
President Bush was in New Delhi signing an accord to open the way for
India to receive international nuclear assistance, even though India
has refused to sign the NPT and has built and tested nuclear weapons.
The same double standards apply to other American allies, including
Pakistan and Israel, both of which have a nuclear arsenal. Once again
the US is using the pretext of weapons of mass destruction to further
its ambitions to establish American hegemony over the resource-rich
regions of the Middle East and Central Asia at the expense of its European
and Asia rivals.
China and Russia, as well
as the major European powers, stand to lose billions of dollars of trade,
contracts and oil and gas concessions in the event of an economic blockade
or military conflict with Iran. That is why negotiations were deadlocked
for weeks as Beijing and Moscow, having agreed to refer Iran to the
UN Security Council, sought to tone down the UN statement through minor
amendments.
A meeting in Berlin yesterday
involving Germany and the five permanent UN Security Council members—the
US, Britain, France, China and Russia—broke up without any agreement
on possible action against Iran. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
had mooted UN sanctions as the next step if Iran failed to meet the
30-day deadline.
Russian Foreign Minister
Sergey Lavrov declared after the meeting that “exclusively political
methods should be used”. He emphatically ruled out the use of
force and added: “In principle, Russia doesn’t believe that
sanctions could achieve the purposes of settlement of various issues,
especially in the Middle East where there’s so much going on.”
Dai Bingguo, China’s
Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, also opposed sanctions or military
action and in a guarded reference to the US occupation of Iraq declared:
“The Chinese side feels there has already been enough turmoil
in the Middle East. We don’t need any more turmoil.”
While Russia and China are
well aware of US intentions in the Middle East, neither is willing to
come into open conflict with Washington. As a result, despite their
reservations and oblique criticisms, both countries fell into line with
the other members of the UN Security Council members and handed Washington
what it wanted—a UN statement of “serious concern”
and a deadline for further action.
The illegal US-led invasion
of Iraq makes clear that Washington is not going to be constrained by
the UN, with or without the attempts of China and Russia to fight a
rearguard action through amendments and diplomatic manoeuvres. Only
two weeks ago, the Bush administration issued a new National Security
Strategy document reaffirming the Bush doctrine of “pre-emptive”
action. US officials have already hinted that Washington will put together
another “coalition of the willing” to take punitive action
against Iran if the UN Security Council fails carry out US demands.
Appearing before a US Senate
panel on Tuesday, US Secretary of State Rice declared that “Iran
is the single biggest threat from a state that we face.” She made
clear that the US had no intention of backing off even if Iran were
to agree to every element of the IAEA resolutions regarding its nuclear
programs. “We need now to broaden that thinking and the coalition,
not just to what Iran is doing on the nuclear side but also what they’re
doing on terrorism,” she said.
Rice’s comments also
demonstrate that the US is not going to confine itself to UN-sanctioned
actions. After referring to possible UN measures, she added: “We
have a number of tools, I think, at our disposal, including in sharpening
the contradiction between the Iranian people and a regime that does
not represent them.” While not explicitly calling for “regime
change,” Rice asked last month for an additional $75 million to
fund anti-Tehran propaganda and opposition groups inside and outside
Iran.
Military strikes against
Iran were not openly discussed at the US Senate panel as one of Washington’s
“tools”. But US officials, from President Bush on down,
never tire of repeating that “all options are on the table”.
In recent months, there have been a series of leaks in British, German
and Israeli newspapers indicating that both the Pentagon and the Israeli
military have been engaged in detailed planning for an attack on Iran.
Those stories have been accompanied by thinly veiled threats from senior
Bush administration figures, including Bolton who bluntly told Fox News
earlier this month that “the use of force is certainly an option.”
The entire modus operandi
bears chilling similarities to the build up to the US invasion of Iraq:
US contempt for the UN, unsubstantiated allegations of weapons of mass
destruction and a lack of any significant opposition in the political
establishment either at home or abroad. This week’s UN statement
on Iran is one more step towards a reckless new act of imperialist aggression
by the gangsters in the White House.