Reality Withdrawal:The Iran Nuclear Scare™ Cycle Continues

A report from the semi-official Fars News Agency in Iran is sure to send the Bomb Iran crowd into a frenzy. But it shouldn't.

"Parliamentary sources revealed on Saturday that Iran's legislature is due to discuss the country's withdrawal from the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director-general released a biased report against Iran," Fars reported. The Vice-Chairman of the Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Mohammad Kowsari said a commission would consider withdrawing from the NPT in response to "a relevant demand by a major political faction of the Iranian university students."

This news will surely be seized on by some in the foreign policy community as evidence that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons capability. However, this is not the first time that conservative Iranian officials, as a result of politicized IAEA reports, sanctions, and continued military threats from Israel and the United States, have spoken of withdrawing from the treaty and ceasing its cooperation with the IAEA.

On July 24, 2003, Ali Larijani, who was then head of the state media outlet Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) and member Iran's Supreme National Security Council, told a university audience, "Because we have obtained the essential (nuclear) technology, if they attack our facilities, we will withdraw from the NPT." Larijani is currently the Speaker of the Iranian Parliament, the Majlis.

In late September 2004, Larijani was again quoted as saying, "If the Europeans and the United States exert excessive pressure on us, we will have no other choice" but to pull out of the NPT.

At the same time, the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported that "[l]eading conservative parliamentarian Hassan Kamran has prepared a bill for submission to parliament that would force the government to set a November deadline for the U.N. nuclear watchdog to take Iran off the agency's agenda," and quoted Kamran, who is a member of the parliament's Foreign Affairs and National Security commission, as saying, "The bill obliges the government to pull out of the NPT if the International Atomic Energy Agency does not meet the deadline."

In response, Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazzi told CNN that Iran had no intention of leaving the Treaty. "No that is not our policy," he said. "We are sticking to NPT". Similarly, reformist politicians in the Majlis openly opposed the proposal.

On April 24, 2006, The Jerusalem Post reported Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying, in response to the possibility of UN Security Council action against Iran, "Working in the framework of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and the agency is our concrete policy, [but] if we see that they are violating our rights, or they don't want to accept (our rights), well, we will reconsider."

Two weeks later, in May 7, 2006, a letter signed by at least 160 Iranian MPs was sent to the United Nations warning that, if issues related to Iran's nuclear and uranium enrichment programs were not settled in a peaceful manner, "there will be no choice for the Majlis but to demand the government withdraw the ratification of the additional protocol and put on its agenda a review of Article 10 of the NPT." Article 10 of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty maintains that, in the interest of "national sovereignty," member states "have the right to withdraw from the Treaty if it decides that extraordinary events, related to the subject matter of this Treaty, have jeopardized the supreme interests of its country."

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told the press, "We will not accept any resolution that is against our rights. Any action by the Security Council will have a negative influence on our cooperation with the agency. The involvement of the Security Council will direct the path of cooperation towards confrontation. It's obvious that the Security Council should not take any action that it is not capable of dealing with later because we will not refrain from our rights." Asefi also stated, "Suspension and pause is not on the agenda at all, and the Security Council should not do something that will get it into trouble later on," and "intervention by the Security Council in this issue is completely illegal."

Ahmadinejad reiterated, "If the signature of an international treaty threatens the rights of a nation, it will be of no value for that nation."

A few months later, the Security Council adopted Resolution 1696 which illegally called upon Iran to halt its uranium enrichment program. Four months after that, the Security Council passed its first round of sanctions against Iran, banning "the supply, sale or transfer, for the use by or benefit of Iran, of [nuclear-]related equipment and technology" and froze "the funds, other financial assets and economic resources" of key individuals and companies related to the enrichment program.

"Following the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1737 against Iran's nuclear activities, the Islamic Consultative Assembly discussed many possible options to show a proper reaction to the resolution, including a withdrawal from the NPT," said Kazem Jalali, Rapporteur of the Majlis' National Security and Foreign Policy Commission in early 2007. According to Fars News, Jalali added, "But a majority of the MPs supported a proposal on revising the country's attitude towards the International Atomic Energy Agency and accelerating the nuclear activities," continuing "Now that it is time for us to make use of our NPT rights, withdrawal from the treaty does not at all serve Iran's interests. Rather, we would like to view it as an option."

On September 29, 2009, Reuters reported that, in advance of renewed negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 in Geneva, "conservative hard-liner" Mohammad Karamirad, another member of the Foreign Affairs and National Security commission, declared, "If the Zionists and America continue their pressure on Iran and if the talks...do not reach a conclusion, then parliament will take a clear and transparent position, such as Iran's withdrawal from the NPT." Nevertheless, Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran's atomic energy organization, told reporters, "We are acting in the framework of the NPT. We are committed to our commitments."

Two months later, in late November 2009, after the IAEA passed a resolution censuring Iran, Karamirad repeated his warning: "The parliament, in its first reaction to this illegal and politically motivated resolution, can consider the issue of withdrawing from the NPT."

On June 17, 2010, despite another round of UN sanctions, Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani stated, "The western countries' reactions should not make us angry and cause our withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)," adding that, at this time, "I think we should not withdraw from the IAEA or the NPT. We must provide the grounds for implementing the rules by strengthening them instead."

And now, another year, another IAEA report, more Israeli threats and American concern, a repeated Iranian call to withdraw from the NPT and frenzied hand-wringing and finger-wagging from the media.

Pretty boring, huh?

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UPDATE:

November 13, 2011 - A report from PressTV quotes another Majlis minister, a member of the parliament's presiding board, Mohammad-Hossein Farhangi as saying, "withdrawing from the Non-Proliferation Treaty seems to be more advantageous than remaining an NPT signatory and an International Atomic Energy Agency member," according to the official Majlis news agency, ICANA.

Due to the politicized nature of the IAEA and especially the recent report on Iran's nuclear program, Farhangi wondered, "Under such circumstances, what benefit does IAEA membership have for member states which have become signatories to the NPT? Isn't withdrawing from the NPT more beneficial?”

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UPDATE II:

January 29, 2012 - In anticipation of a visit to Iran by high-level IAEA officials and inspectors, including IAEA Deputy Director General and head of its Department of Safeguards Herman Nackaerts, Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani has once again chimed in on Iran's relationship with the agency. According to Reuters, Larijani "warned the IAEA team to carry out a 'logical, professional and technical' job or suffer the consequences."

"This visit is a test for the IAEA. The route for further cooperation will be open if the team carries out its duties professionally," Larijani said. "Otherwise, if the IAEA turns into a tool (for major powers to pressure Iran), then Iran will have no choice but to consider a new framework in its ties with the agency."

Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi was quoted by the Mehr News Agency as saying, "We are very optimistic about the outcome of the IAEA delegation's visit to Iran...The nuclear issue has taken the right course and our interaction with the agency has been good, and the cooperation has been close and extensive."

Salehi, who was speaking to reporters during a trip to Addis Ababa, also remarked, “We have always tried to adopt transparency as one of our principles of cooperation with the agency, and during their visit, the agency's delegation will have some questions that will be answered appropriately."

"We have nothing to hide and Iran has no clandestine activities," he added.

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