For the same investment, wind generates 5 times the jobs and 2.3 times the power as a nuclear reactor.
TheInternational Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) Board of
Governers voted onSaturday, 27 to 3, with 5 abstentions, to report
Iran to the UNSecurityCouncil over allegations that it is pursuing
a programme to acquirenuclear weapons.
This decision is a grave mistake which threatens to further
escalate tensions in the region.
Greenpeace is opposed to any nation acquiring nuclear technology
andnuclear weapons, including Iran. But we believe the best way to
ensurethat doesn't happen is for the IAEA to have continued access
to Iranian facilities. Iran hasalready made clear that if the
matter goes to the Security Council itwill restrict inspections and
no longer comply with requests to revealinformation above and
beyond what is legally required under existingtreaty
obligations.
As past situations have shown, in particular in Iraq, any action
thatrestricts inspections and that closes opportunities to
rebuildconfidence can only lead to a confidence vacuum. And where
hardevidence is not available, warmongers on all sides exploit the
currencyof fear and speculation.
The UN Security Council is simply not the right body to resolve
aconflict over whether a country has a right to a nuclear programme
ornot. The Security Council has failed to live up to itsCharter
obligations to minimize human and economic resources spent
onarmaments, or to advance the goal of a Middle East nuclear
freezone. Instead the permanent members (who are permanent
membersprecisely because they have nuclear weapons) have
participated in armsraces and weapons profiteering, stubbornly
refusing to comply withtreaty commitments to eliminate their
nuclear arsenals. Given thisrecord, how can the Security Council
resolve the Iran crisis?
Given the failure to treat the nuclear weapons programmes of
othercountries with the same vigilance as Iran's, how can the
accusation ofhypocrisy not have a ring of truth?
The only solution to this crisis is a Nuclear Free Zone in the
MiddleEast. It's a vital first step towards removing all
nuclearproliferation risks in the region, as well as providing the
essentialsecurity guarantees from nuclear weapons states outside
the region.
That means an end not only to existing and nascent nuclear
weapons programmes, but an end to nuclear power as well.
Iran insists that it is simply exercising its rights under the
terms ofthe Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty to develop "peaceful
nucleartechnology." There is no such thing as peaceful
nucleartechnology. Once a country has a nuclear power programme it
ispossible for it to develop a weapons programme. That's as true
forGermany, Japan and Brazil as it is for Iran.
Our position on Iran is the same as that for all countries with
nuclearpower or nuclear weapons - the ONLY basis for peace,
security andsustainable development is to abandon nuclear
programmes; and to phaseout nuclear power in favour of sustainable
renewable technologies - inother words, a nuclear-free world.
Iran has an opportunity to stop this slide toward war by calling
for aregional nuclear-free zone in the Middle East. The
international community hasan opportunity to stop this slide toward
war by pursuing exactly thesame thing.
The current path is lose-lose for everyone except the makers of
nuclear weapons and the peddlers of nuclear power.
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