Nuclear program

As of last Saturday, Japan had shut down all 50 of its nuclear reactors, ending over three decades of reliance on nuclear power for a third of its electricity.

Despite being one of the most high-tech countries in the world, Japan still has not fully contained the meltdown at the four reactors in its Fukushima-Dai-ichi power plant following the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami that devastated northeastern Japan on March 11 last year.

Nuclear power did not mean cheap electricity for Japan. In fact the situation was the opposite — the country had the highest power cost in Asia. Now the country is intensifying its R&D efforts on alternative, clean energy sources. But in the meantime, it has been compelled to switch to fossil fuels for electricity.

Among the largest producers of fossil fuels is Iran. The country is bucking global trends, as industrialized countries such as Japan and Germany move away from nuclear energy for civilian uses. Why Iran, the world’s fourth largest producer of crude oil, is pursuing nuclear development is fanning suspicions that the program, ostensibly for peaceful civilian purposes, is being used to conceal the development of nuclear weapons.

Iran’s top diplomat in Manila, Ali Mohammadi, insists that “we are not looking for nuclear arms.”

“It’s not halal to go nuclear,” Ambassador Mohammadi told STAR editors during a visit to our office recently. “For us this is very important.”

He emphasized that Islam prohibits the use of nuclear power for defense purposes. And since Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is also “a religious leader,” he won’t do anything that’s not halal, the ambassador said.

Mohammadi said Tehran is also aware that their development of nuclear weapons would trigger an arms race in their volatile region, which would be bad for Iran’s economy.

“We do have a strategy for development. We do have a vision” for Iran’s economic, political and scientific development, Mohammadi told us. Based on that strategy, he said, “we believe we should develop our own energy sources.”

He said his government foresees Iran facing “a very serious problem” within the next decade if the country does not invest in new energy sources.

The most viable, as far as Tehran is concerned, is nuclear energy.

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Iran is suspected to be trying to produce weapons-grade uranium in an underground facility near the holy city of Qum. What is public knowledge is that the plant started producing 20 percent enriched uranium last January, said to be just one step short of the 90 percent needed for weapons-grade uranium. That same month Iran, under pressure amid threats of further international sanctions, again allowed nuclear inspectors to visit the country.

The escalating tension over nuclear arms in the region is compounding political unrest in the Middle East and North Africa, pushing up world crude prices and of course fuel prices in the Philippines.

The Obama administration has been trying to engage Tehran, while at the same time allowing (according to reports) covert operations to undermine Iran’s nuclear program. But there’s no telling what Israel, Washington’s staunch ally in the region, will do. Israel’s suspicion that its annihilation is a national policy of Iran was reinforced by public statements made by Ahmadinejad, whose government does not recognize the Jewish state.

Iran’s nuclear scientists have a tendency to die in accidents or murders, with another one assassinated by unknown elements last January.

Mohammadi says the context of annihilation, as used by Ahmadinejad, has been misinterpreted. What was meant, the envoy explained, was in the context of, “Where is Yugoslavia? Wiped out. Where is the Soviet Union now? Wiped out. We did nothing to them. That is the sense of annihilation.”

The ambassador stressed that Iran initially tried to import nuclear technology for medical and other peaceful uses. He noted that nothing came out of their negotiations with Germany, France and Russia, while recent initiatives with Turkey have stalled.

This compelled Iran to develop its own nuclear program, Mohammadi said.

“We enriched our own uranium. That is the story of our country, all based on our national interest, because we are an independent country… we cannot rely on others,” he said, adding that developing nuclear energy for peaceful purposes “is a right of every nation, based on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.”

The ambassador also defends his country from criticisms about human rights, particularly the treatment of women.

“You should not compare Iran with Western countries. For sure, we are different,” he said. “We are the freest society in the Middle East. If the measure is Western, then it’s different. But it’s a very diversified world.”

He wants his country and the Philippines to strengthen ties, pointing out that there are 500,000 Christians living peacefully in Iran. His country, he says, is one of the world’s top tourist destinations.

The number of Iranian students in the Philippines is increasing. The Philippines exports bananas to Iran but has suspended crude oil purchases amid international concern about Tehran’s nuclear program.

“We are not for war. We are not for military operation. There has been too much bloodshed in the region,” Mohammadi told us. “We are not going to attack anybody. This is our policy.”