The Nuclear ‘Theater’

For the last 12 years, a play with many acts and many scenes has held the top spot of the bill, in which the actors are the so-called “international community,” supported by China and Russia, in the role of the anti-proliferation brigade, and Iran in the role of the “bad boy.” The plot of the play is centered on the Iranian nuclear “controversy.” It is evidently a bad screenplay, given that it has lasted for more than a decade.

After all this time, we are still in the suspicion and supposition phase, or scene, given that the investigators from the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency have still not been able to verify the accuracy of the charges against Iran. And until that happens, the Iranian nuclear program is deemed a “civilian” program, which the international community challenges. Also, to accuse Iran of setting up a military program under the cover of civilian nuclear power is a bad strategy, the primary objective of which is to prohibit an “unqualified” country from mastering the nuclear process.

It’s as simple as this: Some people have decreed that certain countries don’t have the right to acquire nuclear know-how. Also, those who have a monopoly on nuclear power worry, they say, about the “ambivalence” of Arab countries — referring namely to Iran, Algeria, Iraq, Egypt and Syria — while relativizing and minimizing the importance of Israel’s nuclear arsenal. From their perspective, the 150 to 300 nuclear warheads in Israel’s possession are less dangerous than Iran, which is only suspected of trying to build an atomic bomb. Misinformation, indoctrination and manipulation are being used indiscriminately.

Thus, we say and are told that this supposed Iranian atomic “bomb” would put the safety of the U.S. and the world in danger. You’re telling us! That’s what the U.S. senators and Israel assert. It would be more efficient for them to explain how an “atomic bomb” in the planning stages — assuming this plan exists — would be more threatening to global security than the A- and H-bombs of the United States (estimated at 4,650 warheads in 2013) and Israel (between 150 and 300 atomic bombs).

Given this context, note that Israel has always barred the IAEA from controlling its military nuclear installations. Likewise, the lAED, which devotes enormous effort to Iranian nuclear power, is not interested in Israeli nuclear power to the point, on numerous occasions, of rejecting resolutions calling on Israel to place its nuclear installations under IAEA’s supervision. In fact, Israel is the only country that does not adhere to any U.N. treaties on nuclear power – specifically, the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons Treaty and the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty.

Besides, Israel maintains ambiguity over its nuclear arsenal; there is neither confirmation nor denial whenever the subject returns to the agenda. Iran is commanded to be entirely transparent about its nuclear activity, while Israel is excused from such an obligation. We don’t understand this strange formula. We don’t understand why the U.S. — which no institution in the world can control nor has the power to control — deploys around 1,700 A- and H-bombs globally, in the air and in the oceans; bomb-carrying bombers, warships and submarines equipped with nuclear warheads, while Israel aims its nuclear missiles at the main Arab and European capitals.

This was revealed by eminent Israeli professor, Martin van Creveld, a global specialist in low-intensity wars, who confirmed it in an interview with an Israeli television channel. In fact, it is the two countries that are ready to strike Iran’s nuclear sites which are the real danger threatening the disintegration of the planet.

However, according to the U.S. and Israel, the only danger is the Iranian “bomb,” which hasn’t even been made yet. It is deplorable that the U.N., via its agency charged with controlling atomic energy, the IAEA, buries its head in the sand to avoid seeing the Israeli nuclear threat, focusing instead on the uncertain Iranian bomb. Of course, it’s Iran which must strip naked to prove that it’s not hiding anything that might harm the decision makers of the world. Also, if the Lausanne negotiations fail, it’s possible that there will be a before and after March 31, the deadline for negotiations on the Iranian nuclear issue. Obama recently confirmed that the military option is still on the table.

As I said before, this is bad theater, but even so, it could have a dramatic impact on the world.