Iran and the US

As the plot of the crisis thickens, one ought to juxtapose the grand US vision with its observed geo strategic proclivity -- maintenance of Israeli military preeminence vis a vis other regional actors -- to gauge the US' real intent. The fact that Iran has never wavered in its strategic stand to granting such an Israeli preeminence since the fall of the Shah in 1979 remained stuck in the US' mind-set as a major cause for concern over the preceding decades. And, coupled lately with the Iranian opposition to the presence of US forces in neighbouring Iraq, the current Iranian regime is being deemed by the Bush administration as a major threat to the fulfilment of the US' short and long term geopolitical objectives in the Mid East.

The most disconcerting aspect of this ominous spin of events is the Bush administration's cavalier disrespect of the letter and spirit of Article 2(7) of the UN Charter that precludes any UN member state from intervening in matters which are within the domestic jurisdiction of another sovereign state. The IAEA too, on the other hand, must not equate the North Korea's nuclear quest with that of Iran as the latter has always pursued a declared policy of peaceful nuclear usage.

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Given the prevalent situation in the Mid East, both the Bush administration and the IAEA are hence reminded to abide by Article 2(7) of the UN Charter, as well as another major legal inhibition that, too, emphatically proscribes any interference in the domestic affairs of a sovereign state pursuant to a General Assembly Resolution passed on December 20, 1965. The quest for peace demands that the laws among nations must not be brushed aside to accrue 'untenable' geopolitical dividends by any nation.