Jump to content
Objectivism Online Forum

Iran's supposed "right" to uranium enrichment

Rate this topic


DarkWaters

Recommended Posts

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad repeatedly claims that the Iranian Government has the right to enrich uranium. However, Iran does not have this right as they have repeatedly threatened to "wipe Israel off the map." However, to my knowledge nobody in the United States government or in the governments of any of our allies has ever challenged this claim. Has anybody in ARI even issued an unequivocal statement refuting this Iranian claim? It would be magnificent if Yaron Brook issued such a statement. The United States can really use the intellectual ammunition.

Needless to say, even allowing Iran to possess multiple light-water low-enrichment facilities is unacceptable. North Korea was permitted to have two such facilities as part of a 1994 compromise with the Clinton Administration. Of course, less than a decade later, North Korea started reprocessing spent fuel rods to generate high-enrichment (weapons grade) uranium. (This was all done on the Bush Administration's watch.) Iran has not earned trust with any technology that could potentially enhance their offensive capability. This is especially true with the recent evidence that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's Quds force, which answers directly to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been supplying munitions to certain radical Shiite militias. It would be a grave error to make the same mistake by trusting Iran as we did with North Korea.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Scott is right. The package deal here is that Iran has moral standing as a "sovereign nation". This is what I hear commonly from people.

As to ARI. There are some op-eds that I found here, here, here deal with Iran, or nuclear nations, or morally neutral evaluation of nations.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As to ARI. There are some op-eds that I found here, here, here deal with Iran, or nuclear nations, or morally neutral evaluation of nations.

These are good op-eds but I still think that a new, unequivocal statement explicitly refuting Iran's repeated claims to having a right to uranium enrichment technology would be timely, warranted and extremely beneficial. To my knowledge, there is presently a dearth of challenges to Iran's claims. Actions against Iran to prevent them from obtaining uranium enrichment technology are morally justified. We should continue to justify them as long as there is a debate in the media.

I would go further than that and say that becuase the country is ruled by dictatorship, they have lost the right to do anything.

Iran is more of an oppressive theocracy than a dictatorship. Nevertheless, your argument still applies. The Iranian government has no right to uranium enrichment technology nor do they have the right to do just about anything else.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As others have touched on, Iran does not have a right to enrich uranium or produce nuclear weapons. First of all nations do not have rights because they are not volitional entitites. A Government may be rightfully permitted to engage in actions such as the building of weapons for the defense of it's citizens, but those rights stem from their citizens right to be free from harm. As the majority of Iran's citizens are:

1. Mostly Disenfranchised

2. Philosophically (theologically) opposed to individual rights

Their right to self defense (which exists regardless of what they believe in) does not extend to the possession of nuclear weapons by their Government. If Iran were able to produce nuclear weapons they would clearly use it as a tool of extortion and fear to exert influence in the Middle East. The very nature of their Government and the philosophical disposition of their people is what deny them a right to that type of defense.

As to why no one in any Western Government has ever fought Iran's claim to this type of right. It would require them to touch on some embarrassing issues. Firstly they would have to discuss the nature of State's rights. Secondly they would have to tackle the politically incorrect notion that Islam is fundamentally flawed. Instead they abdicate what little moral high ground they have and spend years in the UN wasting time and money on a solution that won't work.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
After imposing economic sanctions on Iran, French U.N. Ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere said, "Nobody in this council wishes to deny Iran its rights, or to prevent the Iranian people from benefiting from nuclear energy for peaceful purposes."

"All states party to the Non-Proliferation Treaty have the right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy" as long as they meet the Non-Proliferation Treaty obligations.

China's U.N. ambassador, Wang Guangya, said China supports Iran's right to a peaceful nuclear energy program, but fully backed the resolution.

Source.

The world needs more intellectual ammunition.

Edited by DarkWaters
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...