Responding to Iran's "offer"

By Vel Nirtist

I find the official American reaction to Iran's president's "offer" rather less than adequate. Ahmadinejad said Iran would "stop the enrichment program if other nuclear powers were willing to do the same." The response from the White House:

"Do you believe that's a serious offer?" White House spokesman Tony Snow said when asked about Ahmadinejad's comments," the same report tells us.

Of course it isn't. But let's pause for a second and think of what Ahmadinejad is telling us. Doesn't he say in effect "Iran is on the par with other nuclear powers; the rules that Iran is bound by, apply equally to the nuclear powers, too"?

But this notion is counter to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. That treaty creates the two-tier system: there are legitimately nuclear-armed countries, and there are other, non-nuclear countries, for whom it is not OK to have nuclear weapons.

In putting forth equality between the two, Ahmadinejad demonstrates that in his mind, the nuclear non-proliferation treaty is no longer binding.

This is serious business, and deserves more than a brusque dismissal. A de-facto declaration by any head of state that he does not see his country as bound by the nuclear non-proliferation treaty is a cause for alarm - especially if that country is ruled by people with such warped, off-the-wall perception of reality as that of the ayatollahs.

Update:

Reader Krooshy Afshar writes:

Ok Vel you need more thinking if Iran was admitting it is trying to make a nuke Bomb your argument make sense.

But if you read all along Iran is saying that it is pursuing a peaceful nuclear program for energy uses and also To this date IAEA has found no diversion so what Iran is offering is if you say we can not have peaceful nuclear program.

Like we are according to NPT are entitle to then you must stop yours and that completely make sense since this is not about the military Nuclear program that 5 declared nuclear powers according to the NPT agreement they are also a signatory of and according to article 4 of that they are suppose to reduce their arsenal which they have not in 40 years since NPT