United Press International,
MUNICH, Germany: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gave an address during the conference 'The World without Zionism' in Tehran on Oct. 26, 2005 with the following message: “Wipe Israel off the map”
This declaration produced shock waves around the globe and heated up the discussion on Iran's future politics. Ahmadinejad's call was a new factor in the decision on how to evaluate Iran's nuclear development program. The core issue is whether or not Iran will use the civilian nuclear energy program to produce the necessary ingredients to build nuclear weapons.
Over the next days, Vienna will be in the spotlight of the world's attention. The Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will gather for a decisive conference. The question will be whether or not the case of Iran's nuclear development program should be transferred to the United Nations Security Council(UNSC).
For many reasons, the board has so far refrained from transferring the issue to the UNSC. There is no “smoking gun” that reveals evidence of a weapons program, but some ambivalent information. There is no agreement among the five permanent members of the USNC on how to pursue this issue.
China and Russia seem unwilling to bring the issue to the table. France and Britain — together with Germany they are the negotiation partners of Iran — seem to be reluctant to place sanctions on Iran. Iran has stopped these negotiations unilaterally, claiming the right of Iran to have nuclear energy and even nuclear weapons — if it wishes to do so.
The United States is keen to transfer the bone of contention to the UNSC. But, the record of U.N. sanctions is not very promising. The sanctions against Iraq and the “Oil For Food” program proved to be a dramatic failure that pushed the U.N. into a deep crisis. No one is eager to repeat this procedure.
Prior to Ahmadinejad's speech and the following anti-Israel demonstrations, there was a tendency in some countries to “muddle through” — even accepting Iranian nuclear weapons at the end of the day.
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