US: Sane Policy on Iran
By the Editor

THE US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said that Washington ‘will come to the table’ as soon as Iran ‘fully and verifiably suspends’ its uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities.

At the same time, President Bush also told reporters in Washington that ‘it is very important that we solve this issue diplomatically’. Pakistan has welcomed the US leaders’ statements.

The US overture has certainly come as a gust of fresh breeze as the international community tensely watched the unabated deterioration in Tehran-Washington nuclear stand-off over the past few weeks.

The realisation on the part of President Bush that the issue needs to be resolved diplomatically and Condoleezza Rice’s pronouncement that the US will come to the table with Iran if it suspends its uranium enrichment programme will hopefully lead to the initiation of formal dialogue between the two countries for peaceful resolution of the crisis.

That is, in fact, the civilised course to address the inter-state disputes. The situation in Iraq and Afghanistan has proven up to the hilt that war is no solution to any issue. War rather complicates the issues.

Besides, the world can ill-afford another war front in the volatile situation prevailing in the region. We, therefore, welcome the US policy shift vis-à-vis Iran and hope that it will be pursued scrupulously and will not be a mere rhetoric.

Iran is obviously not Iraq and the US would plunge into a deeper and marshy quagmire if it opts to attack Tehran militarily. It’s already finding it hard to control Iraq and Afghanistan even after years of occupation.

It’s, however, unfair to subject Iran to discrimination on nuclear technology as a signatory to the NPT, which authorises it to develop nuclear technology to meet its growing energy needs.

As a matter of fact, we are convinced that every country has the right to acquire nuclear technology for peaceful purposes. The US policy shift is a positive development for world peace.

It seemingly is the result of back channel diplomacy as well as principled position taken by China and Russia to avert conflict between Washington and Tehran.

It’s hoped that better sense will prevail and the parties concerned will pursue the dialogue process to address the issue peacefully in the interest of world peace and tranquillity.●