Middle East Focus: IAEA, Iran, the West: Playing Chess, Playing Chicken………….

Arabia Deserta

IAEA, Iran, the West: Playing Chess, Playing Chicken………….

“The International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN watchdog overseeing Iran’s geopolitically incendiary nuclear programme, might turn out to have bite as well as bark. Its latest report, under the leadership of Japanese diplomat Yukiya Amano, who in December replaced Mohamed ElBaradei, the IAEA’s long-serving Egyptian chief, comes close to accusing Tehran of running a covert atomic weapons programme. Leading western powers might have long suspected that; Iran’s Arab neighbours might fear it; and Israel might hold it as an article of faith. But until now the IAEA has been reticent to come out as forthrightly as this without clear proof. The marked shift in tone comes as the US and Europe try to push a new round of sanctions against Iran through the Security Council, and as Israeli officials make clear that they will not stand by and watch Iran go nuclear – and, almost openly, discuss when, rather than whether, to bomb its nuclear facilities. Incendiary indeed – and made more so by Iranian policy becoming so erratic that it is not just hard to know how to formulate a response but to know who to send it to……after months of diplomatic tug-of-war, and Iran’s refusal to surrender the bulk of its LEU stock for enrichment abroad into medical isotopes, the Iranians put nearly all of it on public view and all but pinned a target on it. Cock-up or conspiracy? Incompetence or provocation? We do not know. What we do know is there is no room left for either....…..”

The IAEA seems to have discovered some new teeth under Amano. Clearly the Iranians don’t like him, and I suspect the sentiment is reciprocated. Still, it looks like the Iranians are alternating between the West’s favorite historical game, playing chicken, and their own ancient national game, playing chess.
Cheers
mhg

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