Round The World

New Delhi, 19 May 2010

Iran N-Swap Deal

REBUFF TO US, ECLIPSES G-15 MEET

By Monish Tourangbam

Research Scholar, School of International Studies (JNU)

In a major rebuff to the United States and its allies who were preparing grounds for fresh sanctions on Iran, the Iranian government has signed a nuclear swap deal with Brazil and Turkey. The US has been at loggerheads with the Iranian government over their differences on the latter’s nuclear programme. Tehran categorically maintains that it is meant for peaceful purposes while the US and its European allies are not satisfied with its rationale.

The deal announced just before the commencement of the 14^th G-15 summit eclipsed the general proceedings. The G-15, a grouping of major developing countries, meets to discuss and explore areas of cooperation on important and relevant issues among the member countries. But, the trilateral agreement that Iran, Brazil and Turkey managed to hammer out became the toast of Tehran. It caught the frenzy of all forms of media, with little bites left for the summit.

Even before the summit rolled on, it was clear to any discerning eye that the Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was a man on a mission. He seemed to be determined to be the one to end the impasse over the Iranian nuclear programme, and at the same time, raise his standing as a leader of some reckoning in international politics.

As of now, with the successful signing of the deal, being projected as a fitting reply to the sanctions proposal of the American-led alliance, he seems to have scored on both the fields. Brazil, like India, is also a big time promoter of making the UN Security Council more inclusive. President Lula has been vocal about his differences with the western nations regarding the Iranian dilemma and he would be beaming with pride as Tehran agreed to a major nuclear fuel swap deal.

According to Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), Tehran would ship its low enriched uranium batches to Turkey once the Vienna Group (consisting Russia, France, the US and IAEA) state their official approval of the deal. The Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast said that the Tehran government agreed to a draft proposal whereby Iran will send some 1200 kg of its 3.5 per cent enriched uranium over to Turkey in exchange for a total of 120 kg of 20 per cent enriched fuel to be used in the Tehran research reactor.

Both Brazil and Turkey, non-permanent members of the UN Security Council have been the major force behind this agreement that aims to cut the fangs of the western countries determined on passing “biting” sanctions against Iran. Many developing countries, including India, are not really in favour of crippling sanctions which, they feel, would only end up harming the common people.

The new deal has been projected as opening new vistas for diplomacy and constructive processes in solving the Iranian quagmire, but the American-led alliance seems hardly pleased with the result and reports have suggested that the drive towards sanctions will not slow down as a result of the agreement. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley commented, “It remains to see, and this is what we will be working through in coming days, what does this actually represents.  There are those who might characterize this as a breakthrough.  I think we remain skeptical that this represents anything fundamentally new.”

For the record, the deal has been struck while the almost month-long Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference is underway in New York City. And in a quick counter-attack to the deal supposed to have deepened the divide in the UN Security Council over the issue of sanctions against Iran, the US has upped the ante. Among the veto-welding powers, China and Russia, in keeping with their heavy trade ties with Iran, have been known to express reservations regarding any punitive action towards Tehran.  

But, according to a fresh report, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaking before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee  stated, “We have reached agreement on a strong draft with the cooperation of Russia and China” referring to the talks among the five permanent member plus Germany. She also spoke of immediate plans to circulate the draft to the entire Security Council. As such, grounds are prepared for further rounds of deadlocks and impasse over the Iranian nuclear programme. Only time will tell as to what lies ahead in the nuclear quagmire that is as much a mirror of the long-standing animosity between the US and Iran as it of the differences over the nature of the NPT.

As Tehran became the cynosure of global politics after performing a coup of sorts with the trilateral nuclear agreement, the G-15 summit saw the chairmanship being handed over to the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The Summit concentrated on questioning the relevance of the major global institutions in the context of the changing world. The summit was seen as showcasing the reliability and acceptance of Iran as a responsible country to deal with, in contrast to the image projected by the western nations.

Attempts were made to project revisionist Iran at its best, with President Ahmadinejad using the platform to trumpet his rejection of the western nations and the institutions crafted by it. This line of thought was evident even when he met the Union Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna. Hailing India as a global leader and an economic powerhouse, he commented that both the countries “should not neglect the present opportunities to replace the dying big powers.”

Important matters of bilateral and regional concern including the Af-Pak situation were discussed and a common desire for diversified and enhanced India-Iran ties was expressed. Speaking at the G-15 summit, the Krishna had also put forth the need for reforms in the international financial institutions so as to make them more inclusive and help prevent the recurrence of global economic recessions. 

The member nations concurrently believed that the economic crisis “highlighted the long-standing systemic fragilities and imbalances” of the global financial structure, necessitating more transparency, more supervision and regulation. The essence was the call for alternative financial institutions more representative of the developing world. The Joint Communiqué said: “The Bretton Woods Institutions (like the World Bank and the IMF set up to fund reconstruction of world after World War-II) should not be seen as the unique source of financing for the developing world.”

Groups and associations, both intra-regional and inter-regional have mushroomed over the years, reflecting the changing nature of the international politics, surely assuming a multi-polar nature by each passing day. No longer can a single country or a group of countries for that matter call the shots in all areas. Power is diffused in today’s world; convergence and divergence of interests are more complex in nature. A displeased American government can make life difficult for an intransigent Tehran but an oil-rich Iran still manages to maneuver in this world. As such, bodies such as the G-15 and others are increasingly bound by the need of countries with different priorities to find common voices, convergent ideas and other forms of inter-linking interest.--INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)