What’s at Stake with the Iran Nuclear Treaty? Intrusive Measures on Iran’s Sovereignty
Global Research, December 07, 2013
In-depth Report: IRAN: THE NEXT WAR?
The
six-month nuclear agreement among Iran and the “5+1” countries has been
described as a breakthrough, a departure, a disaster or a betrayal, depending on
the speaker. Much of the language of the agreement reached in Geneva on Nov. 24
reeks of imperialist arrogance.
Whatever one’s
attitude toward the agreement, however, it is essential first and foremost
for all progressive forces to unite and make a clear call to end all the
criminal sanctions and attacks on the sovereignty of Iran and the imperialists’
targeting of the Iranian population.
In examining this interim agreement, we should first look at
the reasons why Iran and the U.S. signed it, and who benefits.
The five
permanent members of the U.N. Security Council — the U.S., Britain, France,
Russia and China — plus Germany are the “5+1.” The U.S. and its allies based
their approach on the repeated charge that Iran’s developing nuclear energy
leads to production of nuclear weapons, which they allege is an ominous threat
to world peace.
All six nations
involved in the talks with Iran have used nuclear energy for more than 50 years.
All but Germany have a nuclear weapons arsenal. The U.S. has the largest such
arsenal “ready to deliver,” is the only one that has ever used nuclear bombs on
people, and U.S. imperialism continues to routinely threaten first nuclear
strikes against countries that have no such weapons.
There is a clear
meaning to the term every U.S. president since Truman has used: “All options are
on the table.” U.S. nuclear aircraft carriers and Trident nuclear submarines,
capable of destroying all life on earth in one launch, prowl the seas, including
the waters directly off the coast of Iran.
The Geneva talks
were based on the premise that the U.S. and its allies would ease sanctions
strangling Iran’s economy; in return, Iran would freeze and then roll back its
nuclear technology development. This is the imperialists’ goal, even though the
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which Iran has signed, guarantees each country
the right to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
U.S. sanctions
legislation has demanded that every country in the world participate in a
blockade of Iran or face severe U.S. trade, banking and insurance sanctions. The
global blockade resulted in undermining Iran’s currency by more than 60 percent
and oil production by more than 50 percent.
No demands are
made on Israel, the U.S. proxy in the region. Israel possesses 100 to 300
nuclear weapons and has not signed the NPT nor ever submitted to an
inspection.
Terms
of the agreement
It is worth
reading the short, 1,500-word “Joint Plan of Action” signed with Iran. It begins
with this outrageous assertion: “Iran reaffirms that under no circumstances
will Iran ever seek or develop any nuclear weapons.” Of course, none of the 5 +1
have ever agreed to any similar pledge.
In order to gain
access to $7 billion of the more than $100 billion of its own funds seized and
frozen in accounts around the world, Iran must agree to undergo daily and
unannounced inspections of its modest nuclear energy program. This includes its
reactors, production workshops, storage facilities, uranium mines and mills, and
all records of these facilities.
Developing
nuclear weapons requires enriching uranium to more than 90 percent of the
fissionable U-235 isotope. Iran must agree to not enrich its uranium to more
than 5 percent and to dilute its limited stock of uranium already enriched to 20
percent.
The agreement
stipulates that accepting these intrusive measures on Iran’s sovereignty will
lead to a six-month pause in efforts to further reduce Iran’s crude oil sales
and suspension of U.S. sanctions on Iran’s auto industry and spare parts for
Iran’s civil aviation.
The agreement will allow Iran to purchase, with funds the U.S
seized, food and agricultural products, medicine, medical devices and pay the
tuition of Iranian students studying in universities abroad.
Lifting even a little of the thick, strangling web of
sanctions shows just how invasive and targeted the sanctions are.
Sanctions began with 1979 Revolution
In evaluating this agreement, it is essential to know that
U.S. hostility and U.S.-imposed sanctions began long before Iran revived its
nuclear energy program.
After the revolutionary overturn of the brutal U.S.-imposed
monarchy in 1979 fundamentally decreased U.S. influence in the entire region,
the first U.S. sanctions on Iran began. The anti-imperialist upheaval — with a
radical Muslim religious current playing a leading role — transformed Iranian
society. It also liberated Iran’s oil and gas resources from the unequal
contracts serving the giant oil corporations of Exxon, Mobil and
Shell.
U.S. strategy since 1979 has been to destabilize the Iranian
state and sabotage Iran’s economy in order to again dominate the country’s rich
resources. Washington has used industrial sabotage, assassinations of political
leaders and scientists, and military encirclement.
In 1979, Washington seized $10 billion of Iran’s own money
held in U.S. banks. Over the years, Wall Street has seized billions in other
Iranian assets that now total more than $100 billion in frozen funds. U.S.
pressure included economic ruptures through the International Monetary Fund, the
World Bank, the Export-Import Bank and cancellation of hundreds of
contracts.
Long before Iran revived its nuclear energy development to
meet growing energy needs, the U.S. made every attempt through sanctions to
block Iran’s ability to build oil refineries to refine its own oil and gas. Iran
was a major exporter of crude oil, but was forced to import refined oil products
at far higher costs.
Finally in 2011, after completion of seven new refineries,
Iran ceased being a gas importer. But sanctions blocked Iran’s plans to export
refined gas.
By developing its economy independent of Wall Street theft and
domination and controlling its own resources, Iran was transformed within three
decades from an underdeveloped country into a modern state with a highly
educated population. While capitalist relations prevail, the population was
still able to win guaranteed, comprehensive, free medical care; free education,
including university; a modern infrastructure; and housing with full
electrification.
Women’s education has improved from majority illiteracy to
full literacy. More than 60 percent of university students are now
female.
The Iranian revolution has enraged Wall Street and all the
forces of reaction and feudal power in the region by providing political and
material support to the Palestinian liberation struggle, the Lebanese resistance
to Israeli occupation and the Syrian government resisting regime
change.
Along with failing to destabilize Iran, the U.S. has utterly
failed to stabilize its rule in Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan, despite massive
destruction. Its plans for a quick overturn in Syria have also met determined
resistance, despite billions of dollars in funds, equipment and training of
mercenary forces.
As its economic position declines, Washington planners are
trying to shift their overextended military power further east to confront
China’s growing economic position. Overwhelming sentiment in the U.S. against
another war has also pressured Washington to try new tactics.
Washington’s broken treaties
The U.S. government’s record of 200 years of unequal and
broken treaties with the Indigenous nations of North America shows that
diplomacy and talks have always been used as a form of warfare. For Wall Street,
intervals of peace are preparatory periods for the next war.
More recently, in 2003 the U.S. agreed to relax pressure on
Libya if that country gave up nuclear ambitions. By 2006, all sanctions on Libya
were ended and many economic deals with the West opened up. Yet in 2011, the
U.S. and NATO engineered the destruction of Libya.
The outcome of the continuing nuclear talks in Geneva won’t
change the basis of U.S. corporate power’s decades of hostility towards
Iran.
That Washington actually did sign this interim agreement with
Iran, however, has shown that imperialist plans to totally destroy an oppressed
country have fallen short. If the imperialists can’t outright steal what they
want, it means at least a limited victory for the oppressed.
These treaties have similarities to the class struggle
represented in every union contract. Even with a strong union, workers are never
paid the full value of their labor under capitalism. Nevertheless, it is a
struggle and a victory to win even a minimal, signed union contract.
The Iranian government has years of experience in U.S.
duplicity. In 2003, Iran’s then President Khatami, with current President
Rouhani as the chief negotiator, voluntarily suspended nuclear enrichment and
for two years allowed the International Atomic Energy Agency to make intrusive
inspections, with the expectation that the imperialists would cut back on
sanctions. President George W. Bush nevertheless ratcheted up new sanctions,
listed Iran as part of the “Axis of Evil” and one of the three nations targeted
for regime change.
Sections of the U.S. ruling class might well look to sign an
agreement with some Iranian forces that U.S. strategists believe might make an
accommodation with imperialism or that they could utilize to open up a deeper
struggle inside Iran. Washington would seize on any internal instability in Iran
as an opportunity for a new offensive.
Other powerful U.S. corporate forces that have a far more
profitable stake in war and militarism will attempt many ways to sabotage even
this short-term agreement. Israel and Saudi Arabia, as dependent U.S. proxies in
the region and whose position and billions of dollars in military equipment is
based on their role promoting war and instability, are both threatened by any
form of agreement with Iran. New U.S. congressional sanctions may put an end to
even this minimal thaw.
What does Iran gain?
Immediately following the agreement, France’s Peugeot, Citroen
and Renault auto manufacturers, along with representatives of German, South
Korean and Japanese car makers, announced they were sending executives to an
automotive conference in early December in Tehran, considered the starting gun
in a race for post-sanctions business.
Before the latest round of U.S.-imposed international
sanctions, France shipped semibuilt cars to Iran as “kits” for assembly by
Iranian companies such as Iran Khodro and SAIPA.
More than 100,000
autoworkers were laid off as sanctions hit Iran’s biggest manufacturing
industry, forcing plants to operate at less than half
capacity.
The six-month agreement “will have a pretty swift impact in a
sector that is a big source of Iranian jobs — so this is more than just
symbolic,” said Thierry Coville, an Iran specialist at IRIS, a French
international relations think tank.
Iran is planning
how to get beyond the six-month interim agreement and is looking to expand its
contacts beyond Peugeot and Renault to prevent future trade restrictions. There
are also contacts at the German-Iranian Chamber of Commerce. India announced
plans to accelerate an Indian port project at Chabahar to access Iranian goods
coming via Afghanistan. The leading Turkish pharmaceutical company, Abdi
Ibrrahim, is looking at sales of medicine and medical devices. (Reuters, Nov.
29)
Iran’s long
struggle for sovereignty over its resources and its own future will at least
gain some breathing space in this round of diplomatic war. If the continued
talks are sabotaged, then the people of Iran will again learn by their own
experience what imperialism is.
By raising the
many difficulties imposed by past sanctions, the anti-war movement here can stay
focused on demands to end all the sanctions and war threats against
Iran.
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