THE IRANIAN ISSUE

The Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad declared that his country does have"the undeniable right" to develop nuclear energy and will not "succumb to bullying " by "fake superpowers". This quotation wonderfully sums up the deadlock of the Iran issue concerning nuclear energy. Indeed, the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council; the United States, France, Britain, Russia, China, plus Germany are taking a dim view of Iran’s desire to develop nuclear energy, which for the International community seems to mean the nuclear weapon. The Iranian Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar likes to think of himself as being reassuring towards the U.N. Security Council as regards the respect of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Nevertheless, a trial of strength has begun between the U.S and Iran. President Bush has claimed that Iran is secretly developing nuclear weapons. Some members of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna have urged the U.N Security Council to take actions and impose sanctions against Iran. Conversely, Mohamed ElBaradei, the chief of the IAEA agency, punned, declaring that “the dispute between Iran and the West was a critical stage but not a crisis situation”.

Is diplomacy able to convince Iran of the necessity of giving up nuclear energy? Does Mohamed ElBaradei know that in International Law a “crisis situation” can legitimate resorting to force? Moreover, according to Gareth Smyth and Najmeh Bozorgmehr, 16 members of the IAEA board are non-aligned countries, that is to say they support Iran. To report the issue to the U.N Security Council, entails a tricky memory, if we recall how things turned out over the Iraq issue. How can we prove Iran’s belligerant nuclear purposes?

These articles highlight the use of certain words or expressions in a period of crisis which may lead to diplomatic incidents. Journalists let the actors speak rather than analysing the events. How long are the American journalists going to remain neutral? Are they going to repeat the Iraq experience and widely publish wrong allegations in order to accuse Iran? Should a journalist simply recount events or try to analyse them?