Iran's Continuing Nuclear Weapon Saga
Does Long Range Missiles Plus a New Nuclear Facility Equal Trouble?
Sep 29, 2009
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad smiled his familiar smile on Monday Sept. 28th as he responded to allegations from world leadership about the latest long range missile test as it relates to their nuclear program. On CNN’s Larry King Live Ahmadinejad said, “How can he possibly accuse us of secretly engaging in an activity that did not take place?”
The he Ahmadinejad is referring to in his quote is President Obama who, according to ABC News, said on Monday, “The Islamic Republic of Iran has been building a covert uranium enrichment facility near Qom for several years.” The report went on to say that Obama was joined in his condemnation of Iran by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and French President Nicholas Sarkozy.
The Correlation:
It was only two days earlier at the G-20 summit where it was revealed that a previously undiscovered nuclear facility was operating in Iran. As revealed in the article “Iran’s Latest Nuclear Surprise,” that announcement sent its fair share of shock waves throughout the international community.
Coupling these two events obviously leads to the conclusion that Iran is seeking to develop nuclear armaments. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs expressed such and was quoted by an ABC news article Iran’s Missile Test Creates New Standoff as saying, “Obviously these were pre-planned military exercises…I would lump any of these into the provocative nature in which Iran has operated on the world stage for a number of years.”
The Solution:
It is unclear what to do about theses latest two Iranian revelations. Severe sanctions are definitely being considered. According to ABC news reporter Martha Radditz in her article, Iran’s Missile Test Creates New Standoff, sanctions could include halting the export of goods like cars, machinery, and chemicals to Iran. But if China agrees to stiff sanctions, up to 40% of Iran’s gasoline imports could be stopped.
The real problem is that the countries opposing Iran cannot agree on the specifics of the intelligence. An MSNBC article: A Nuclear Debate: Is Iran Designing Warheads? “Each country bases its view on a combination of satellite imagery, human spies and electronic eavesdropping. And they do not necessarily share it all with one another or with the International Atomic Energy Agency, an investigative arm of the United Nations.”
This lack of clarity causes confusion about what to do about the situation as a whole.
Counterpoint:
Not everyone concerned with the situation is convinced that the threat is a threat at all. Rolf Mowatt-Larssen is the former head of intelligence at the Department of Energy and a nuclear expert. Mr. Mowatt-Larssen states, in an MSNBC article: A Nuclear Debate: Is Iran Designing Warheads? “It’s often tradecraft that gets us bollixed up… It comes down to interpreting the same data in different ways, in looking at the same information and coming up with different conclusions.”
He is referring to two or more entities looking at the same information in different ways, and coming up with different conclusions.
Clearly these two events, Iran’s newly discovered nuclear facility and their long range missile test have the put the remainder of the world on alert. The United States and its allies in the UN are not taking Iran lightly. Still there are others who are not convinced that the threat is as severe as we are bring told.
Sources: MSNBC.com
ABC.com
CNN.com
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