Who can be trusted with nuclear weapons?

"I am officially announcing that Iran has joined the group of those countries which have nuclear power.” These 17 words were uttered live on television last Tuesday, by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, to a cheering crowd of jubilant compatriots proud that their country had joined this patented club of countries whose wishes may not be ignored by the rest of the world because of their ability or potential to back their power with nuclear technology.

It is a small club of nations that can intimidate the rest of the world. Until recently, that club was almost exclusively White and Western (including the Zionist State of Israel), with the exception of China. But North Korea, India and Pakistan are also members now. All experts agree that Iran has not become a full member yet and may take a few more years to be able to make nuclear bombs but it has now demonstrated its potential.

As Iranians jubilate ‘The World’ or more appropriately those who think
they are ‘The World’ through the global media they control and the rest of us follow, let it be known that our world is made more unsafe by this copycat scientific development in Iran. US State department spokesman, Sean McCormack, said to BBC: “we would have hoped that the Iranian regime would have taken this opportunity to choose a pathway of diplomacy as opposed to the pathway of defiance.”

The same words could have been quoted back to the US for many policies its government, especially under the bellicose George Bush, have pursued since it came to power. And I am not referring only to the foretold tragedy in Iraq. It would be more credible if those who preach to other nations to respect international rules, conventions and etiquettes were themselves impeccable in their observance of the same.

The US government should be the last government to shout foul because it has refused to allow international law or morality to stand in its way in the pursuit of its own interests. If it can obey international rules in a kind of reckless a la carte what right has it got to say other countries should not do the same?

I am not sure if the world feels as threatened by Iran acquiring what all experts know to be a capacity to make nuclear fuels as the US and EU countries are orchestrating. Many Africans openly or secretly jubilated when India detonated its nuclear bomb the same week that Pakistan launched its own.

The only regret many felt was that there was no African country able to do the same and redeem the continent and its peoples from ‘nuclear whitemail’. There were many African scholars and activists who opposed Professor Ali Mazrui’s call for an ‘African Bomb’ in the 1980s who now regretted their ideological opposition to the controversialist scholar.

I was a baby radical then and thought of Mazrui as a reactionary. Now I know better. In those days, Mazrui had ambitions for Nigeria to be able to counter the nuclear threat posed by apartheid South Africa. The idea that nuclear weapons are safe in the hands of Americans and their European cousins only and a danger to the rest of the world is not only patronising but also racist. If George Bush can be trusted with nuclear weapons why not anybody else? The only way to ensure universal nuclear disarmament is for all countries to renounce it and destroy the nuclear arsenal they have acquired. As long as some have it and others do not, those who do not will try to either acquire it, if they can or if they cannot, envy those who do. Iran is not the only country trying to acquire nuclear weapons.

How come nobody is talking anymore about North Korea whose capability is technically ahead of that of the Iranians and whose leaders have also declared their readiness to use it ‘for pre-emptive action’ the principle so beloved by Bush’s America? There is no doubt that the Iranian government under President Ahmadinejad has raised the stakes very high in a game of brinkmanship against American bullying.

Many countries have been cowered into submission but secretly wishing they could also play with the Tiger’s tail and get away with it.

Is it really surprising that the Teheran announcement came the same week when Western media was full of stories about Washington planning ‘pre-emptive strikes’ against nuclear installations in Iran by the US, including using nuclear weapons? Does anyone expect the Iranians to behave like sitting
ducks?

Teheran continues to protest that it is seeking nuclear technology for peaceful purposes. The Americans and many Westerners doubt this intention but many people in the world also doubt Western intentions. The US in particular, has not got a good record in identifying real threat to global peace and security. It was wrong in Iraq, in Afghanistan and why should anyone trust its judgement now? Russia, China, India, Pakistan and Israel have nuclear weapons and these countries are either neighbours of Iran or countries with strategic focus on the country and vice-versa.

Therefore Iran cannot be expected to willingly leave itself so vulnerable. Whether it is Ahmadinejad or any other leader, the nuclear option would have been a serious option in Teheran. Now that Iran has demonstrated its capability it may actually be opened to diplomatic discussions.

Unlike Israel which does not even accept any UN Non- Proliferation treaty and welcomes no inspectors, Iran may return to cooperation with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) but like Israel, it may never fully disclose its capability, just to keep its regional rivals and enemies guessing: do they, don’t they?

How many Africans will really find it objectionable if there is an African state with such potential?