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No Natural Right to Enrich Uranium
(Globe and Mail-Canada) Editorial - Mohammed Javad Zarif, the Iranian Foreign Minister, rejected the proposed agreement in Geneva because it did not grant to Iran a "right" to enrich uranium. There can be no inherent or natural right to enrich uranium. Iran is a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and is in violation of it. Although the treaty does say that the parties have an inalienable right to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, that passage is unmistakably set inside the framework of the treaty as a whole. And that treaty is about restricting the spread of nuclear weapons. The NPT requires the parties to enter into agreements with the International Atomic Energy Agency to establish safeguards and provide verification that they are in compliance. Iran's unwillingness to provide anything approaching adequate verification makes it eminently suspect. Consequently, the country is not allowed to keep enriching uranium or plutonium.