Heavy is the head that wears the crown. After receiving the Nobel Peace Prize of 2005 the UN atomic watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei as well as the IAEA have greater responsibility in up-keeping the impersonal, unbiased and impartial approach to the issues at hand.

Presently the most trying issues the agency has to deal with immediately are: de-nuclearisation of the Middle East, Iran’s right to peaceful nuclear programme, North Korea’s nuclear imbroglio, reduction in nuclear arsenals as well as maintenance of world peace on nuclear issue.

Crowning all these main fixtures of the IAEA is the abiding need of the hour for the Agency to rise above all biases, considerations and 
alignments. In the wake of the cold war era, the world peace has been made too precarious because of the mishandling of certain regional issues by a man who is at the helm of affairs in Washington DC.

If we measure the vitriol of Mr Bush and his aids in the State 
Department, in the last six months, one is sure a disaster is in the offing in the Middle East. The American leadership should realize that Afghanistan once was zero-sum game for the USSR, so that the Middle East might prove to be so for the present supreme power of the world.

A crisis on a wider-scale in the ME involving active military involvement of the US forces, coupled by yet another unfortunate orgy of natural disasters like, Katrina, Rita and Wilma, would be enough to scale the status of the supreme power of the world down to a regional power. Every sane person avoids this eventuality as it entails yet another disaster for the world peace, security and economy.

Although mostly the onus lies with the US to act deferentially to the 
world peace yet the working of the IAEA regarding world’s nuclear issues become all the more vital. Especially the foremost issue of present day Middle East, Iran’s right to nuclear technology, needs to be tackled with great care.

Firstly, shouldering its direct responsibility the IAEA should work out fair and just deal that should not compromise Iran’s national security and sovereignty. Such offers as are forwarded by the US to guarantee provision of nuclear fuel to Iran as well as other countries having nuclear reactors, provided they abandon nuclear enrichment activities at home, are to be rejected forthwith and should never be acceptable to the agency as they are in direct clash with nations’ sovereignty, however, abstract it may have become to some thinkers.

The IAEA can have tighter control over Iran’s nuclear activities and can monitor them with the proactive participation of Iran, which has always been forthcoming. The IAEA has all the resources at hand and there should be no hindrance in doing that. While doing so, the IAEA should state in unequivocal terms Iran’s inalienable national right to make fuel for its nuclear reactors.

There should not be any problem to do so because already Iran has made an arrangement with Russia to return all the spent fuel to that country.

                                   Diligent negotiators
Secondly, the IAEA must withstand the Euro-American pressure on the question of Iran’s’ referral to the UN. Another board’s meeting in 
November is fast approaching and the Agency has an early chance to put to rest world’s apprehensions about Euro- American adventurism against Iran to endanger the world peace.

(a) The IAEA must immediately come out with straight facts whether Iran has moved towards militarization of its nuclear programme or not. It has an obligation to the world and not alone to the US and EU-3 nations.

(b) The Agency should be unequivocal in its statements and should 
abandon the policy of appeasement. It should completely disregard 
whether its findings are liked and approved by the great powers or not. In all circumstances truth must prevail.

(c) The Agency should immediately establish greater contact with Iran, gain its confidence and start the professional work burying the past. It should ensure that nothing in Iran is done beyond the parameters of NPT, which should be studied as a legal document and no construction should be made on its clauses that might tantamount to arbitrary revision of the treaty as is the case with the US and EU-3.

Thirdly, it is the onerous responsibility of the IAEA to ensure the world peace on the question of nuclear non-proliferation. The IAEA should not become the Monster Eye if the world is sucked into the storm of maladjustments, suspicions and diabolical misgivings. The Agency has to ensure that it is not misused and its resources are not exploited by certain powers to advance their own agenda in the name of non-proliferation and the so-called world peace.

Information

Presently the most trying   issues the agency has to deal with immediately are: de-nuclearisation of the Middle East, Iran’s right to peaceful nuclear program-me, North Korea’s nuclear imbroglio, reduction in nuclear arsenals as well as maintenance of world peace on nuclear issue.

First appeared in Pakistan Observer on November 09, 2005

The man that lingered on with Iran's nuclear programme incessantly

No one can doubt Iranians' commitment to their nuclear programme

Facing the challenge squarely

Diplomacy that has yet to deliver