By Robert Grenier
The drama over the nuclear deal signed by Brazil, Turkey and Iran demonstrates one thing above all: The bankruptcy of the current non-proliferation regime dominated by the nuclear weapons states.
Last Monday's announcement of Iran's agreement to ship roughly half of its current stockpile of low-enriched uranium to Turkey in return for 20 per cent enriched uranium fuel rods suitable for Tehran's research reactor came as an unwelcome surprise in the P-5 capitals - the five permanent members of the United Nations security council - despite the agreement's resemblance to one negotiated last October by those very nations.
Status quo
The great powers' response was not long in coming: The following day, word emerged that the P-5, including the Russians and Chinese, had agreed on a draft UN security council resolution tightening, at least marginally, existing nuclear-related international sanctions on Iran.
The two processes were not necessarily in conflict. But lest anyone miss the point, Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, was quick to release a statement: "This announcement is as convincing an answer to the efforts undertaken by Tehran over the last few days as any we could have taken".
The message from Clinton and the US could hardly have been clearer: 'We like the current P-5-led global non-proliferation regime just fine, thank you, and we don't need any credulous mid-level powers messing about with it'.
Rather than addressing the substance of what Brazil and Turkey were attempting to achieve, Washington - and by limited extension the rest of the P-5 - were implicitly suggesting that the fruit of their efforts was in fact due to effective manipulation on the part of Iran to avoid the looming specter of enhanced UN sanctions. Link
