Left I on the News

The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty guarantees signatories the right to develop nuclear power for peaceful purposes; the "non-proliferation" applies to nuclear weapons, not nuclear power. So you might think that a signatory complying with the treaty would be a good thing, as opposed to the four nations which are not signatories which have developed nuclear weapons - Israel, India, Pakistan, and North Korea. But no, you'd be wrong:

The five permanent UN Security Council members claim Iran's uranium enrichment activities undermine the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

"This ... imperils prospects for progress on other NPT goals such as nuclear disarmament and hurts prospects for expanding international (civil) nuclear cooperation. The proliferation risks presented by the Iranian nuclear program continue to be a matter of ongoing serious concern to us," they claimed.

Next up: Switzerland's neutrality poses a grave danger to the Geneva Conventions.

Reporting on the NPT story, AP incorrectly claims that "Iran...is under U.N. Security Council sanctions meant to pressure the Tehran government into allowing inspections that will ensure it isn't developing nuclear weapons." This is false. Iran was and is in full compliance with the NPT, and has been allowing inspections. The sanctions were put in place in an attempt to deny Iran its right under the NPT to develop nuclear power. However, since complying with the treaty still resulted in sanctions, Iran has now announced that those inspections are at an end:

An Iranian envoy said Monday his government will not submit to extensive nuclear inspections while Israel stays outside the global treaty to curb the spread of atomic weapons.

"The existing double standard shall not be tolerated anymore by non-nuclear-weapon states," [said] Ambassador Ali Asghar Soltanieh.

At the same meeting, Christopher A. Ford, U.S. special representative for nuclear nonproliferation, decided to give Laura Bush and Condoleezza Rice a run for their money in the irony and phony compassion departments, when he talked about "a proud and sophisticated people already suffering from economic turmoil and mismanagement by its regime's leaders." Uh, Chris, have you been home lately, or have you spent the last seven years in Geneva? Because if you're looking to criticize a country for the mismanagement of its leaders and in economic turmoil, you really need to see that your own house is in order before pretending you care about the Iranian people.