Special Report: Iran Nuclear Crisis
by Che Ling
TEHRAN, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- Iran's controversial and
highly sensitive nuclear issue which has come in the spotlight for more than
five years has passed a dangerous and sinuous year of 2008 and come to another
impasse.
Some observers and analysts had
believed that 2008 would be the last chance for the George W. Bush
administration and Israel to attack Iranian targets for Tehran's suspicious
nuclear program before the U.S. presidential
elections.
MILITARY TENSIONS
UNDERWAY
The Bush administration has said it focused on
diplomacy to try to resolve Iran's nuclear issue, but also proclaimed many times
it will take "no option off the table."
U.S. daily the New York Times reported in June that
U.S. military believed that Israel's military exercise conducted earlier that
month was a rehearsal for a potential bombing attack on Iran's nuclear sites.
More than 100 Israeli F-16 and F-15 fighter jets
participated in the maneuvers over eastern Mediterranean and Greece during the
first week of June, the report quoted U.S. officials as saying.
Commander of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps
(IRGC) Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari said shortly after that his troops
would counter any attack against the country.
Iranian Defense Minister Mostafa
Mohammad Najar later warned ofa "limitless" response to any military strike, and
considered reported Israel's air drill over eastern Mediterranean and Greece as
"psychological operations".
In response to threats from the
United States and Israel, IRGC later in July successfully test fired new
long-and-mid-range missiles including a Shahab 3 missile which can hit any
target within a range of 2,000 km in military exercises dubbed Payambar-eAzam 3
(Great Prophet 3).
Meanwhile, Iran warned of closure
of Hormuz Strait, a narrow waterway in the Gulf through which roughly 40 percent
of the world oil is transported, if confronted with any kind of military
threat.
WEST: NEGOTIATIONS,
SANCTIONS SIDE-BY-SIDE
Although propaganda of potential military
confrontations over Iran's nuclear issue has never stopped, the United States
and its allies were still trying to block Iran's nuclear process by both
negotiations and sanctions.
European Union (EU) foreign policy chief Javier
Solana in mid-June presented to Iran a new package of incentives proposed by six
major powers -- Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States plus Germany,
suggesting that Iran get a temporary reprieve from economic and financial
sanctions in exchange for freezing its enrichment activities.
But Iran failed to answer the new package in a way
expected by the West, saying that Iran's answer will be based on logical and
constructive answers to Iran's package which is aimed to help resolve regional
and international problems, including Iran's nuclear issue.
On July 19, Solana and Iran's top nuclear negotiator
Saeed Jalili held nuclear talks in Geneva. U.S. Undersecretary of State William
Burns attended the meeting.
After the deadline of August 2, which Tehran
rejected, the United States and its allies warned Iran of asking the United
Nations to proceed with further sanctions.
Shortly after the warning, the U.S. Treasury
announced sanctions to be imposed on five Iranian entities for alleged ties to
Iran's nuclear and missile programs.
On September 27, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted resolution 1835 which reaffirmed its previous resolutions on Iran since July 2006 without no new sanctions, calling on Iran "to comply fully and without delay with its obligations" under the resolutions, and to meet the requirements of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors.
