An Iranian Offer Worth Considering

[kristopher]

An Iranian Offer Worth Considering
By ALI VAEZ AND CHARLES D. FERGUSON
Published: September 29, 2011


...The proposal arose earlier this month amid the habitual bombast that surrounds Ahmadinejad’s annual trip to the U.N. General Assembly. “If you give us uranium grade 20 percent now, we will stop production,” the Iranian president told The Washington Post and later, in basically the same terms, The New York Times.

Ahmadinejad clarified that the offer did not apply to the production of 3.5 percent-enriched uranium, which it uses at the Bushehr power station to generate electricity. But the offer is significant nonetheless.

While the 20 percent-enriched uranium is used to make medical isotopes in the Tehran Research Reactor, it lies at the perilous dividing line between low-enriched uranium and highly enriched uranium. Stockpiling 20 percent-enriched uranium significantly shortens the time then needed to make crude nuclear weapons. By seeking supplies in the West, Ahmadinejad’s offer may lower concerns that Iran will make a dash toward developing atomic bombs in the near future.

As a party to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, Iran has the right to enrich uranium to 20 percent (and even more), so long as it uses the uranium solely for peaceful purposes and operates under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency. But prompted by revelations that Iran was violating its treaty obligations, the U.N. Security Council has passed six resolutions since 2006 demanding that Iran suspend all enrichment activities.

Yet the Iranian...

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/30/opinion/30iht-edvaez30.html?_r=1

Six resolutions have done nothing to deter Iran in the development of reprocessing facilities that can be used for nuclear weapons and that should inform the way this offer is viewed. If Iran were provided 20% enriched uranium could it then be used it as a feedstock into their weapons program? Once they have The Bomb, it isn't going to matter to them if their "enemies" object or not.