Skip to main content

The right to enrich uranium

Iran International reported on Feb 9 that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said once again on Sunday, Feb 8: “Zero enrichment can never be accepted by us.” Put more precisely, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Sunday, Feb 8, that Tehran wanted its rights under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to be respected. 

        What are NPT States’ rights under NPT? 

        Michael Crowley, in the New York Times on Feb 6, 2026, presented the opinion of Gary Samore, Brandeis University, on the issue of Iran’s ‘right’ to enrich Uranium under the NPT: 
         “The question hinges on intentionality. If you believe their program is purely peaceful, then they have a legitimate claim to a right to enrich. If you think the Iranian enrichment program is just a cover to build up to a nuclear weapon option, then they don’t have that right.” 
        Crowley went on to write: ‘There is no authoritative arbiter for the question. The treaty does not have a body that would make such decisions.’ On that matter, Crowley has it wrong. 
        There is indeed an ‘authoritative arbiter’ in the NPT system, through the NPT Review Conferences, at which decisions can be taken on the implementation of the NPT treaty. That could include this uranium enrichment issue (and the related plutonium reprocessing issue). The U.S. as a member of the NPT, could work to have the issue of uranium enrichment under NPT addressed through it. Or, other NPT States could take the lead on addressing the more general matter of a nuclear threshold state under NPT.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

‘New war with Israel at any moment’, ‘still digging through rubble’

The news about Iran has taken an ominous tone in the last couple days. Here is some reporting and commentary.  Newsweek on August 18, 2025, reported that Yahya Rahim Safavi, senior military adviser to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, said ‘ We are not in a ceasefire; we are in a stage of war. No protocol, regulation, or agreement has been written between us and the U.S. or Israel. A new war with Israel could break out at any moment .’  Yonah Jeremy Bob commented in The Jerusalem Post on August 19, 2025, that ‘ Khamenei can either “drink from the poisoned chalice” of diplomatic concessions … or face more airstrikes, possibly next time some targeting him directly ’.   Bob also noted that ‘ right now Iran is still digging through rubbl e’. The U.S. attacked Fordow, Natanz and Esfahan on June 22. Two months of digging. No surprise that there has been no public news about that.
Post a Comment
Read more

Assessing possible outcomes of the snapback mechanism

The initiation by the E3 of the 30-day snapback mechanism in the UN Security Council makes everything more difficult and there is great uncertainty about the outcome. Will it be peaceful with a new nuclear deal with Iran, negotiated by the U.S., endorsed by the UNSC and verified by IAEA, or will Iran withdraw from NPT with further military action by Israel and the U.S.?                 To perhaps shed a little light on what the outcome will be, here is my analysis of how the players - Iran, U.S. and E3 - may be assessing the acceptability of the range of outcomes. Four levels of acceptability were used: 1 Fully acceptable; 2 Less acceptable; 3 Just acceptable; and 4 Not acceptable. Four near term 30-day outcomes are listed, and two optimistic outcomes with an interim U.S.-Iran agreement reached within a 6-month extension.                 For the 30-day near term, the best outcome would b...
Post a Comment
Read more

U.S. Sanctions, Middle East views

Trump’s special envoy Witkoff has hit the capitals again; in Tel Aviv Netanyahu probably told him to tell Trump that he will take over all of Gaza; in Moscow Putin probably told him to tell Trump that Ukraine will be destroyed and forget the sanctions. Witkoff didn’t get to number 3 on his list, Iran. But Trump played another ‘ getting to a deal ’ with Iran card, adding sanctions he can later get credit for removing. And the Middle East commentators are worriedly reacting to the Iran situation. Here are some highlights.  From Newsweek:       The U.S. announced on July 30 the largest Iran-related sanctions since 2018 , targeting entities and vessels linked to the country's petroleum sector: 20 oil firms, 5 vessel management companies, 1 wholesaler, and over 115 individuals in 17 countries and regions, including the U.K., Italy, Switzerland, India, the UAE and Hong Kong.       U.S. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said: "Today's Depar...
Post a Comment
Read more