US intensifies confrontation with Iran ahead of talks

US intensifies confrontation with Iran
14 May 2012 – WSWS

Negotiations next week in Baghdad between Iran and the P5+1—the US, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany—will be a turning point in the dangerous confrontation over Iranian nuclear programs. Washington is putting intense pressure on Tehran to make major concessions, even as the US prepares to impose crippling sanctions and threatens war.

Speaking last week in Vienna, US nuclear negotiator Robert Wood demanded that Iran take “urgent, practical steps” in order to comply “with all its international obligations.” He criticised Iran for failing to grant “the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] access to all relevant sites, documents and persons necessary to resolve questions about its nuclear program.”

Iran has repeatedly declared that it has no intention of building nuclear weapons. Its nuclear facilities, including its Natanz and Fordo enrichment plants, and stockpiles are under IAEA inspection and monitoring as required by the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT). However, the US and its allies are insisting that Iran end uranium enrichment, which is permitted under the NPT, and ship its stockpile of 20 percent enriched uranium out of the country.

The likelihood of any firm deal emerging from the Baghdad talks is slim. The US demands that the IAEA be granted access to personnel and facilities is an endless process requiring Iran to prove a negative—that nowhere in its large territory are there programs related to nuclear weapons. The IAEA, which is meeting with Iranian officials this week, is demanding admission to Iran’s Parchin complex—a military base—where allegedly high-explosive testing of the type required for a nuclear device took place, nearly a decade ago. Like similar claims, the IAEA “evidence” comes from foreign intelligence sources—most likely from the US or Israel.

Israel, which is threatening to take unprovoked military action against Iran, has put more pressure on negotiations by pressing for a complete end to Iran’s uranium enrichment programs. According to Associated Press, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told EU policy chief Catherine Ashton last week that Iran would have to commit to a timetable to end enrichment and to dismantle its Fordo plant for Israel to accept the outcome—demands that Tehran has already rejected.

Ashton was in Israel to ascertain the stance of the newly formed coalition that brought the opposition Kadima party into the government. Kadima leader Shaul Mofaz, a former internal security chief, had been critical of Netanyahu’s threats to attack Iran. But his entry into the cabinet makes an Israeli attack on Iran more, rather than less, likely. The coalition gives the government an overwhelming parliamentary majority, and Mofaz’s presence will be used to blunt widespread domestic opposition to a war on Iran. …more