Iran In Cold War Environment.

A defining feature of the Cold War was the proxy battles and regional tension fostered by a bipolar world order which demanded of nations that they take sides. Both the US and the Soviet Union, in dividing up the world into spheres of influence, slowed economic integration and political co-operation in Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Often, this policy contributed to human rights abuses, economic under-development, and bottled-up grievances which would later explode when the Iron Curtain fell. Today, a similar trend has taken hold in American foreign policy. This time, however, the enemy is not the Soviet Union and international Communism, but Iran and Islamic militancy (both Shi'ite and Sunni), and many countries are again being asked to take sides in this new face-off.

While Iran offers less in the way of enticements than the Soviet Union did, its increasing importance as a reliable oil supplier to Asia has created a dilemma in capitals like Tokyo, Beijing, and Seoul, which must address repeated attempts by Washington to slow their ties with Tehran. This is why China and Japan - who each get about 15% of their oil from Iran - have expressed opposition to the UNSC imposing sanctions on Tehran because of its nuclear programme.

Beyond the diplomatic tension this creates, a US-Iranian showdown threatens to scuttle one of the most promising regional co-operation initiatives of the past several decades: the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project. This and other projects worth a total of about $30 bn would provide energy-hungry India both pipeline gas and LNG. Pakistan would acquire much-needed gas and earn hard currency from transit fees. Both countries would benefit from Iran's South Pars gas, a cleaner burning fuel more amenable to the already dangerously polluted skies of the subcontinent, particularly if the pipeline is extended to reach China.

The pipeline stands as a potential symbol of co-operation between two states, India and Pakistan, which have fought three wars and have the power to torch the Asian subcontinent with nuclear weapons. New Delhi and Islamabad have never been closer to a resolution of a perilous Kashmir dispute. Both Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh have said they see light at the end of the tunnel which has divided them since 1948.

Though President George W. Bush, in off-the-cuff remarks in New Delhi recently, said he was not opposed to the IPI pipeline deal, US diplomats have been acting furiously to derail it. Senior US State Department official Nicholas Burns recently advised India to avoid the "unreliable" Iranians and instead look to Central Asia for its growing gas needs.

The US-India nuclear energy deal which officially welcomed New Delhi into the nuclear club is seen partly as an American enticement to divert the Indians away from the Iranians and partly as a Washington strategy for India eventually to challenge China as an Asian super-power. But the IPI pipeline is about more than just energy needs. It is a chance to interlock the economic fates of India and Pakistan and create co-operation to reduce tensions in the subcontinent.

Energy deals rarely offer an opportunity for peace. Usually, they spur further conflict. However, this proposed gas pipeline is one arrangement which could improve security. But the US is against it as Iran is the enemy in the new cold war between the West and Iran/Islamic militancy.

The main enemy of Iran's economic development is its own government, whose mix of populism and bad planning has left a country with the world's second largest gas reserves and the fourth largest oil reserves stagnating in a pool of under-achievement.

Iran Targeting 20,000 MW From Nuke Plants: The chairman of Iran's parliamentary National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, recently said Iran was aiming to produce 20,000 MW of power from its proposed nuclear plants. He explained: "Electricity generation from nuclear energy is a small part of the nuclear energy programme. Iran's progress in many other scientific fields will depend on production of this clean energy. Iran plans to use the nuclear energy programme envisioned during the pre-revolution era, when the West had close relations with Iran. At that time, the Western states had accepted generation of 23,000 MW of electricity in Iran from nuclear energy.

"At that time, energy countries of the world including the US, France and Russia had co-operation agreements with Iran for production of nuclear energy. But after the victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran [in 1979], they cut co-operation with Iran and said continuation of Iran's nuclear activities would not be in the interest of peace". But in reality it was Imam Khomeini who banned the nuclear option as he came to power, calling it "satanic".

Boroujerdi accused the West of being biased in their policies with regard to nuclear energy, saying their decisions had no scientific or logical basis but were politically motivated. He added: "Iran's strategic [nuclear] policy is quite transparent. It moves forward within the framework of...the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and discusses issues with the West. Western states continue to accuse Iran of hiding a nuclear weapons programme when its activities have been open to inspection based on rules...of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)".

Eight countries are believed to possess nuclear weapons: the US, Russia, China, the UK, France, Israel and, more recently, India and Pakistan. The number of states pledging to give up building or obtaining nuclear weapons in return for access to peaceful nuclear technology has reached 184. Such pledge is part of a permanent pact called, "The Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons". To verify adherence to this commitment, more than 300 IAEA experts conduct daily field inspections in around the world. Their main concern is to ensure that atomic materials deposited at more than 1,000 nuclear installations in some 74 countries are not shifted from peaceful application programmes to what may be clandestine weapons building programmes.

Since its establishment in 1957, the IAEA has been associated in the minds of many people with the role of "watchdog" solely concerned with verifying whether Developing Countries, especially those in the Muslim world, possessed nuclear weapons or not. The IAEA is active in three main domains: nuclear energy, nuclear safety and security and inspecting nuclear weapons in the Developing World.

In addition to cost-effective power generation, atomic energy is used in a variety of peaceful applications aimed at serving communities and sustainable development. It is used in R&D in various fields such as agriculture, industry, health, environment, etc. For example, nuclear energy is used to reclaim deserts and salty soil so it becomes arable and so plant development can survive desert conditions. It is used to improve livestock quality.

Gamma rays are used to induce mutations which result in better food security.

There are countless uses, including: identifying and assessing underground water sources; sterilising medical equipment and surgical instruments; producing special material used to bandage burns and wounds; diagnosing tumours early, etc.

Radioactive analysis techniques often are used to monitor dangerous toxic environmental pollutants, preserve foodstuffs, etc.

According to Dr Ali Ahmad Hammad, Egyptian specialist in the science of nuclear power: "Peaceful atomic energy uses characterize the post-World War II era. No doubt, whenever we hear the phrase 'atomic radiation', we are haunted by fear and consternation, as it is associated in laymen's minds with misconceptions about the danger of nuclear radiation, which in turn is associated in their minds with devastation and destruction brought about by the two atomic bombs dropped by the US onto the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in addition to what media outlets circulate every now and then about the risks of some nuclear countries' nuclear arsenals and the concept of nuclear explosions and radiation resulting there from".