tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13437119.post1617016181100674644..comments2024-03-01T13:51:47.721+05:30Comments on Reality, one bite at a time: India must have a proactive agenda in IranSiddharth Varadarajanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07721228307097170092noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13437119.post-54627749548110069642007-02-08T14:35:00.000+05:302007-02-08T14:35:00.000+05:30The country that, with the full knowledge of its d...<I>The country that, with the full knowledge of its destructive potential, clandestinely developed WMDs and actually used them on an unsuspecting live population, without a shred of evidence of sincere remorse, is now playing nuclear bully!</I><BR/>These anonymous commentators need a crash course in history.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13437119.post-45524280470429354622007-02-08T08:24:00.000+05:302007-02-08T08:24:00.000+05:30Thank you for your clarification regarding Multina...Thank you for your clarification regarding Multinational Fuel Cycle, Siddharth.<BR/><BR/>The US said Iraq had WMDs, attacked it and has destroyed the country. What "clandestine" motives did it have? Now it says Iran has a clandestine WMD programme. The country that, with the full knowledge of its destructive potential, clandestinely developed WMDs and actually used them on an unsuspecting live population, without a shred of evidence of sincere remorse, is now playing nuclear bully!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13437119.post-25248195483032877682007-02-07T21:17:00.000+05:302007-02-07T21:17:00.000+05:30How can anybody with an ounce of reason buy the Ir...How can anybody with an ounce of reason buy the Iranian story of 'peaceful use of nuclear energy'? Iran,in pursuing a clandestine nuclear program has violated the terms of the NPT, which it had signed as a non-nuclear weapon state. The very fact that for years, the Iranians had clandestinely used the cover afforded to it under the NPT to procure materials and technologies that it would have been denied- as had happened to India, which had shown the moral courage and rectitude to stay outside the ambit of the treaty and pursue it's own interests-calls into question the logic behind trusting the Iranians to keep to their part of the bargain, were they allowed to continue with their nuclear program.<br /><br />Furthermore, the statements emanating from various countries in the Arabian peninsula on how to counter the "Shia Bomb"-as the Egyptians are calling the Iranian program-would suggest that any further leeway given to Iran would result in countries in the middle-east, with far more financial muscle than Iran would ever have, showing an active interest in their own 'peaceful nuclear programs'. That combined with the statements coming from Ahmedinejad, with regards to Israel's existence, would only push the entire middle-east region that much more closer to a full-blown nuclear war. <br /><br />Given that India has been unable even to get the slightest concessions from Iran so as to make the gas pipeline project a reality, India's prospects of influencing Iran on the nuclear issue is-at best-suspect.Add to this the Iranian preference for protracted negotiations leading to nowhere, the real danger is of the Iranians using the cover of negotiating with countries like India to buy more time on the nuclear front. The last thing that India needs at present is to play the broker and end up being the jester!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13437119.post-10967536609762548422007-02-07T00:04:00.000+05:302007-02-07T00:04:00.000+05:30Thank you, anonymous, for your comment. Multinatio...Thank you, anonymous, for your comment. Multinational fuel cycle approaches cover a broad range of initiatives ranging from GNEP (which is the US proposal of dividing the world into suppliers and recipients)to four separate approaches outlined by Bruno Pellaud in a report for the IAEA in 2005 to the proposal the Iranian president himself made at the UN in 2005. The last initiative would involve Iran developing enrichment facilities as a joint venture on its own soil with foreign companies from friendly countries. The involvement of outside countries, on top of the IAEA inspection layer, would provide strengthened assurances to the outside world of nondiversion and nonmilitary applications.<br /><br />I hope this answers your query -- the MNF approach I think is most suitable would be a variant of the ahmadinejad proposal, with India, Russia, China, Brazil and Safrica all participating at one lever or another.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13437119.post-83944888705405960092007-02-06T20:32:00.000+05:302007-02-06T20:32:00.000+05:30Mr Siddharth Varadarajan suggests:
.... The five p...Mr Siddharth Varadarajan suggests:<br />.... <i>The five powers</i> (that is, India, Russia, China, Brazil, and South Africa) <i>should seek to come up with a multinational fuel cycle proposal that would both satisfy the international community's apprehensions about a potential weapons programme as well as Iran's energy needs.</i><br /><br />The "multinational fuel cycle" as I have understood envisages that only the Nuclear Weapons States have the "right" to supply enriched fuel as well as reprocess spent fuel; all others can only be buyers. India, rightly, has been insisting on its soverign preogative to have full control over the nuclear fuel cycle including reprocessing. Thus India would not [indeed, should not] accede to an imposition of a "multinational fuel cycle", which is an infringement on its sovereignty. <br /><br />When this is the case, it would be improper for India to harangue Iran to accept any curbs on its rights to pursue nuclear energy technology in a manner that it sees fit and economical. This would apply even if, at some future time, India were to be placed in the position of being a "supplier nation" for enrichment / reprocessing in respect of Iran's nuclear fuel requirements. India should not emulate the US in following one policy for itself and another for the rest of the world.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com