port7, I appreciate what you’re saying regarding countries like UK and USA making commitments to reduce their own nuclear arsenal before requiring countries like Iran to do so, but surely you must see that as a liberal daydream and not something that could likely happen in the real world?

The fact is that having nuclear weapons gives a country a huge bargaining chip when it comes to diplomacy with other countries. North Korea has them, Israel has them, China has them, Pakistan and India have them. Iraq did not have them. If Iran did not have them (or were not close to having them), would they today share the same fate as Iraq?

If it were not for their nuclear deterrent then countries like Israel may today not exist at all, as they are surrounded by other countries that are either not particularly sympathetic, or are downright hostile to them. Whether Israel should exist is another topic completely, but I hope this illustrates to you why a country such as Israel may not take your call to abandon nuclear weaponry as particuarly useful.

Also, if all countries were to abandon and destroy their nuclear arsenals, then it would only require one country to secretly develop them in order to then hold the entire world at ransom. What do you propose could be done to prevent that? Somehow I do not think that asking all countries to play nice will be convincing enough for all.

So once we come from the point of view that most countries will attempt to gain a nuclear deterrent if possible, then we have to look at the behaviour of those countries. If the USA was today similar in resources to Iran then I feel sure that its international neighbours would be prevent it from developing their nuclear deterrent further. After all, the USA is the only country to have used nuclear weapons on an enemy.

It is only natural for countries like Israel to demand that Iran not be allowed to develop a nuclear deterrent. Iran’s president has stated that “Israel must be wiped from the map”, and that the Holocaust is a Jewish conspiracy. If you were Israeli, living within easy range of a cruise missile, would you be happy to give up your country’s nuclear deterrent while a neighbouring country that has made such views known may be developing their own nuclear weapons? If you could prevent them from gaining nuclear weapons through some simple diplomacy, then would you not do it?

It isn’t fair that Iran is not allowed to gain the political muscle that a nuclear deterrent would provide. It also isn’t fair the way they treat their own and other people. A lot of what UK and USA does also isn’t fair. I don’t know the answers to all of this but I know that expecting every country in the world to give up all their nuclear weapons at once is in the category of “things to do after curing world poverty”.

In the meantime I believe it is reasonable to insist that Iran have a nuclear programme suitable only for power generation, with UN inspectors being allowed to confirm that this is the case. If they refuse then I would expect UN sanctions and possibly tactical strikes on their nuclear plants by the Israelis, probably backed unofficially by US and UK aid.

Within countries that allow firearm ownership, there is always some section of the population that is not permitted to own firearms for whatever reason. For example, criminals are not allowed to own handguns in many countries where handguns are otherwise available. Most people who believe in personal ownership of firearms would also agree that denying the ownership to some persons is the correct thing to do, but when we look at an international level, who decides which countries are allowed weapons of mass destruction?

The system we have right now certainly is not fair or ideal, but I would like to see some credible proposals to replace it, rather than “we have nukes so Iran should have too.”
PS I am one of the most liberal people you will meet, and pretty much self-defence pacifist on most issues, so please don’t get the wrong idea when I say that I could contemplate and even support tactical strikes on Iran’s nuclear programme.