I am puzzled by numerous assertion by Juan Cole in his article as the text recognises Iran's right to research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
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I'm not sure what "numerous assertions" you're referring to. Prof. Cole quite clearly states the NPT's allowance of a peaceful Iranian program.
Cole:
The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty allows Iran to develop civilian nuclear energy, and the United States itself urged Iran to build reactors in the 1970s. Iran does not have a heavy-water breeder reactor, which is the easy way to get a bomb. It does have light-water reactors for energy production, but these cannot be used to get enough fissionable material to make a bomb. Although Vice President Dick Cheney has made light of an oil state seeking nuclear energy, it would be a rational economic policy to use nuclear energy for domestic needs and sell petroleum on the world market. Certainly, the NPT permits such a policy.
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The essay's isn't focused on the NPT's details though those are mentioned to build a case; its concern is Washington's needless bellicosity.
Cole:
The Bush administration has arbitrarily taken the position that Iran may not have a nuclear research program at all, even a civilian one. This stance actually contradicts the guarantees of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Washington officials continually intimate to the press that Tehran has an active weapons program, which is speculation. And, of course, the United States itself is egregiously in violation of several articles of the NPT, keeping enough nuclear weapons on hair-trigger alert to destroy the world several times over and actively pursuing new and deadly weapons, even dreaming of tactical nukes. Its ally in the region, Israel, never signed the NPT and was helped by the French to get a bomb in the 1960s.
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So, the point here is that Washington's demands go far beyond the requirements of the NPT. However, as is typical, Washington claims (knowing full well that domestically, the argument will sound plausible) Iran is in flagrant violation.
.d.
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