From Information Clearing House
By Terence M. Gatt

The resumption in August of uranium processing, directed by newly elected Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has not only aggravated enduring tenuous American foreign relations with Iran that have existed since the 1979 Iranian Revolution, but additionally this provocative action directed by President Ahmadinejad escalated political tensions amongst the United States and the EU-3 which are major importers of Iranian petroleum.

President Ahmadinejad continually asserts in his nation’s defense that Iran has an inalienable right to a civilian nuclear program, in order to provide for domestic energy self-reliance principally with the ever-omnipresent international energy supply deficit. This deficit has been projected to only exacerbate as China and India increase their domestic energy consumption during this widely cited period of a net global deficit for energy supplies. Thus, based on continually declining international petroleum supplies and ever-increasing international demand as stated by the International Energy Agency (IEA), a methodologically strong case can be presented supporting the Iranian right under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to pursue a civilian nuclear energy program in order to sustain domestic economic growth and energy self-sufficiency in a dynamic international energy market.

Iran has adamantly maintained their sovereign right to develop a civilian nuclear program to eventually replace its dependence on finite petroleum reserves which are being depleted daily due to decreased international supply and increasing international demand especially from Russia and China. Thus, unsurprisingly China and Russia along with the EU-3 have continually pushed for international negotiation with Iran and increased cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) in a move to prevent the referral of Iran to the United Nations Security Council which ultimately would endanger the diplomatic and economic interests of all nations.

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