An Absolute Right

Barack Obama announced to the U.N. General Assembly that Iran, like all other countries, has the right to enrichment within its own territory. This issue was at a standstill for a while because of objections raised by Israel and its supporters in the United States. They were objections that, to some extent, cast a shadow over what the U.S. president had to say. Despite this, Obama’s reference to Iran’s right is, in fact, a right recognized on the basis of the charter of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for all countries with regard to peaceful uses.

But Undersecretary for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman, who recognized enrichment as part of the comprehensive agreement, raised a significant point with regard to this matter in Tel Aviv and prevented Netanyahu’s excessive and unreasonable expectations. These statements angered Israeli officials: After Wendy Sherman’s five-hour discussion with Israel’s information minister, it was announced by an Israeli official that Israel considers itself entitled to make both an independent assessment of Iran’s nuclear program and an independent decision about whether to confront it. It should be noted that Israel in no way has such capabilities, and its army is still in the hands of U.S. advisers, who would certainly not give Israel permission for such an aggressive action.

The Americans have still not been able to deal with Iraq and Afghanistan, and there is no reason to worry about such military measures from them. On the other hand, our negotiating delegations should stand firm and not cede any ground. After all, by previously putting up opposition regarding enrichment, the Americans attempted to put Iran under pressure so that they could attain all of their marginal demands while Iran was in a tight spot in nuclear negotiations. These demands included requiring Iran to stop building long-range missiles, change its attitude towards the Middle East and give up its support of Hezbollah and Hamas.

But the West is forced to talk only about the contents of the accord and, having put it into effect, coordinate it during an established timetable. It has no rights beyond this. It needs to be mentioned that accords of the Security Council must be respected, and U.S. officials are also forced to implement them. But even if they’d like to prevent Iran’s nuclear enrichment, the P5+1 members will have no right to prevent Iran’s enrichment.

In the initial accord discussed, Iran’s right to enrichment was not officially recognized, and it was said that in accordance with the Geneva Convention, all countries not directly mentioned can have five percent enrichment. Of course, this matter was deliberated with a certain amount of concern in domestic circles. It is an absolute right. Mr. Zarif also announced in an interview that enrichment is our absolute and certain right, and that this certain right does not need to be mentioned in the accord. That which is not directly related to the accord’s contents can only be achieved on the sidelines of the accord and in meetings between Iranian and U.S. officials. Surely Iran will not fail to give consideration to the presence of a 140-person French economic delegation and the delegations from Germany entering in the next few days.

For this very reason, Germany’s foreign minister, contradicting Ms. Sherman, announced that Germany is not entering into negotiations regarding any topic apart from the accord’s contents. We have started moving in the right direction and should continue in this direction, and returning to the past is possible neither for the West nor for us. We should continue down this path, which first came into being as an absolute issue for us and the West. Even if Ms. Sherman previously made statements going beyond the contents of the accord, she has now realized that any path other than implementation of the accord does not exist for Iran or for the West.