Tuesday, March 21, 2023
 
 

US Warning Shot To Iran On Nukes

- Advertisement -

BRATISLAVA – On 19 April, the United States reiterated it is “determined to stop” Iran from developing nuclear weapon capability. “States such as Iran that has shown no hesitation to engage in terrorist activities far from its own boarders, it’s not a state that can be trusted to act reliably if it comes into possession of nuclear weapons,” Thomas Countryman, assistant secretary of state for international security and nonproliferation, told a session on global proliferation challenges during the GLOBSEC 2013 Bratislava Global Security Forum.

With US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel scheduled to begin his first visit to Israel on 21 April, Israeli defence and military officials warned that Tel Aviv was prepared and had the capability to carry out a lone military strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Countryman said Washington is determined to do whatever is necessary to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. Tehran’s actions are a threat to US friends and allies in the region but also a threat to the very integrity of nonproliferation regime, he added. “The single thing that is most likely to cause the nonproliferation treaty regime to fail is the development by Iran of nuclear weapons. In that situation it will become increasingly difficult to prevent the lateral proliferation of weapons throughout the region, he said. “This is why it is a threat, why we are determined to pursue diplomacy as far as it can possibly go. To use all the diplomatic tools in our disposal and that includes from economic pressure and to rely upon vocal support and physical support from our allies in pushing for sanctions and in pushing Iran to finally address the concerns of the international community,” Countryman said.

Regarding the possibility of a military strike against Iran,

Roland Freudenstein, deputy director of the Centre for European Studies, in Brussels told New Europe on the sidelines of the forum in Bratislava on 18 April there is a high risk of instability in case of a military confrontation. “But I just don’t think that a military strike against the nuclear facilities in Iran will mean the end of the world. I think these dangers are vastly exaggerated,” he said.

“It’s possible that the sanctions are toughened and that then somehow Iran starts actually feeling the heat so much that they will seriously negotiate,” Freudenstein said. “It is possible that in the end, if nothing else works, there will be a military strike – maybe only by Israel, we don't know. There is also the possibility that Iran gets away with the capacity to build a bomb in a matter of weeks, and the rest of the world lets it pass. I hope this will not happen. All options are bad; the question for the international community is what is the least bad of the options,” he added.

“Iran wants to support terrorist organisations with more impunity; it wants to meddle in the affairs of its neighbours across the Gulf; it also wants to have a huge boost in Iranian society, it wants more power and it believes it can get all this with a nuclear weapon,” Freudenstein said.

[email protected]

follow on twitter @energyinsider

- Advertisement -

Subscribe to our newsletter

Co-founder / Director of Energy & Climate Policy and Security at NE Global Media

Latest

EU-Turkey earthquake relief conference: Time to get serious

The European Union is hosting a reconstruction conference in...

Cambodia’s current government is the face of tropical Fascism

There is no hope that the authoritarianism that the world sees in places like Russia, China and Cambodia can ever be interpreted as a peaceful and benign phenomenon, or that it should be accepted by an implicit racist or discriminatory assumption that some cultures just don’t have a democratic tradition and aren’t quite capable of ever developing one.

Energy supply diversification out of Russia’s orbit is a top priority for Bulgaria

Bulgaria intends to diversify its energy resources, including supplying...

Recovery from the disaster of the century needs more than a few months of international assistance

Two devastating earthquakes hit the Turkish-Syrian border on February...

Don't miss

EU-Turkey earthquake relief conference: Time to get serious

The European Union is hosting a reconstruction conference in...

Cambodia’s current government is the face of tropical Fascism

There is no hope that the authoritarianism that the world sees in places like Russia, China and Cambodia can ever be interpreted as a peaceful and benign phenomenon, or that it should be accepted by an implicit racist or discriminatory assumption that some cultures just don’t have a democratic tradition and aren’t quite capable of ever developing one.

Energy supply diversification out of Russia’s orbit is a top priority for Bulgaria

Bulgaria intends to diversify its energy resources, including supplying...

Recovery from the disaster of the century needs more than a few months of international assistance

Two devastating earthquakes hit the Turkish-Syrian border on February...

Georgia has shown the world that a Kremlin project can be defeated

Over the past few days, the world’s attention was...

Energy supply diversification out of Russia’s orbit is a top priority for Bulgaria

Bulgaria intends to diversify its energy resources, including supplying the country’s main refinery in Burgas - the largest in the Balkans - with non-Russian...

Opponents of ayatollahs vow Iranian women will transform the country into a democratic republic

Iranian opposition leader Maryam Rajavi say a democratic revolution is unfolding in Iran. Rajavi was the keynote speaker of an international conference in Brussels on...

Morocco is key to the EU’s Neighborhood Policy

Morocco has positioned and developed itself as an indisputable oasis of social and economic stability in a part of the world where such claims are few and far between; a fact that is not lost on many of Europe's politicians.

Iranian diaspora’s push for democracy: Rejects the past, advocates for the future

In recent rallies and conferences, including in Paris, Berlin, London, Belgium, Oslo, Rome, Washington, DC and Toronto, Iranian expatriates and associated organizations have called...

Azerbaijan planning to launch green energy exports to Europe

Azerbaijan, which is already a main exporter of oil and gas, plans to develop its renewable energy potential, especially offshore wind in the Caspian...

Thousands of Iranians hold pro-democracy rally in Paris

On a cold and wintry day in Paris, some 10,000 supporters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, or NCRI, gathered to mark...

NE Global interviews Iran’s Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi

Iranians have tried every other possible way to work for change, for many years. Those who thought they could reform the regime have continually been disappointed. Now they know that they have no other solution.

A Pan-American electricity grid from Patagonia to Alaska?

Challenges associated with different regulatory frameworks and the comprehensive international treaties that are required could scuttle the project before it gets off the ground.