The four panelist included former Indian Ambassador to Syria and Turkey, Rajendra Abhyankar, professor John Walbridge of IU’s Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, Jim Cason of Friends Committee on National Legislation in Washington, D.C., and local activist ?David Keppel.
“Iran Nuclear Negotiations: Can We Strike a Deal – and Will Congress Support It?” was organized by the Bloomington Peace Action Coalition, the Just Peace Task Force of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Bloomington and Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.
“We are at a crossroads between a potentially historic diplomatic solution and hawkish legislation that would impose new sanctions and push the United States into another disastrous war in the Middle East,” Keppel said.
Walbridge said before the event that the forum was scheduled in light of the fragile state the debate regarding Iran’s nuclear program.
“From a legal point of view, the Iranians have every right to have nuclear technology for peaceful purposes,” Walbridge said.
Walbridge was referring to the international legality of the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons, which he said has two parts: the right of countries without a nuclear program to develop one and countries with a nuclear program to gradually disarm military use of nuclear weapons.
“Non-nuclear countries, i.e. ones that don’t have nuclear weapons, are guaranteed a right to possess and use nuclear technology as long as it is not used for military purposes,” Walbridge said.
Abhyankar said he agreed that Iran had a right to a nuclear program as stated in the NPT.
He also brought up the ongoing pressure from ?Israel, a U.S. ally, as a reason Congress feels a need to sanction Iran’s nuclear program.
“There is a strong pressure from Israel, which as I said has a nuclear weapon but doesn’t want anyone else to have it,” Abhyankar said. “The question is how strong is this influence over United States policy?”
