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Journalism of Courage
Iran has pursued a sophisticated policy in dealing with US non-proliferation pressures by providing details of its nuclear activities for the past three decades to the International Atomic Energy Agency IAEA, after inviting three key EU foreign ministers and getting them involved. It had been accused by the US and Israel of pursuing a nuclear weapons8217; programme in contravention of its treaty obligations under the NPT as a non-nuclear weapon state. However given the record of US intelligence and the claims at the highest levels in the US and UK regarding the possession and likely use of weapons of mass destruction by Iraq, independent observers are bound to take that with a very large pinch of salt.
This is not to say that Iran may not have ambitions to pursue a weapons programme. Reports even keep surfacing about a Saudi nuclear weapon programme. If Iran was to be believed on face value, it was willing to accept additional safeguards on its nuclear programme, but was seeking clarification on the course of events after that. This essentially relates to political arm-twisting by the US which designated it as part of the three-nation 8220;axis of evil8221;. But it also means that the Iranian concern may well be that their nuclear power programme would be the real target of non-proliferation pressures in spite of the NPT obligating states to provide such assistance in this matter.
