Whether the United States is a force for global peace is not really up for debate in the self-described ‘indispensable nation’, though the question sharply divides opinion almost everywhere else. By focusing on America’s fixation with Iran, this short and angry book argues against.
The book’s polemic is built on good foundations: we are often told that Iran is a rogue nuclear state, yet it does not possess nuclear weapons. As a signatory to the NPT, the Non-Proliferation Treaty, Iran is entitled to a peaceful nuclear energy programme as long as it is monitored by UN inspectors.
However, ten years of negotiations aimed at persuading Iran to stop have led nowhere. The US permits Israel and India — which haven’t signed up to the NPT — to possess nuclear weapons, while Iran’s ‘inalienable right’ to uranium enrichment has incurred America’s wrath.
The authors quote Sir John Sawers, the MI6 chief and formerly in charge of the Iran file at the Foreign Office, as saying that ‘Washington would never tolerate the operation of even one centrifuge in Iran.’
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