Thoughts on Iran's Nuclear Program

This is an issue that has been around since Bush administration. Obama administration has intensified the economic sanctions in effort to stop the enrichment of uranium but to no avail. In fact, Iran has "announced legislation intended to disrupt traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, a vital Persian Gulf shipping lane, and "it's" testing missiles in a desert drill clearly intended as a warning to Israel and the United States." Iran Takes Defiant Steps Over New Sanctions .

As it stands right now, there is a stand off between the West and Iran. Since neither side is willing to give ground on their demands, the negotiation talks are going nowhere fast.-Iran nuclear stand-off: Travelling circus of talks continues .

Here is a borrowed summary ( from the article above) of the demands of each side :

World's powers want Iran to "stop the enrichment of uranium to 20%; close a heavily-fortified enrichment facility near the city of Qom; and export its stockpile of 20% enriched uranium. " ; while Iran wants "a recognition of Iran's right to enrich uranium, a lifting of sanctions and a discussion of regional issues including Syria."

Since the last talks have ended in stalemate, both parties have agreed on continuing talks on low-level experts' meetings. Whatever the level is, both sides need to understand that you need to give a little to receiving something back. Right now, Worlds powers are literally trying to bully the nation into submission. Anyone knowing anything about Middle East nations will tell you that they are not lacking anything in the pride department. USA is making the same mistake it constantly makes with Russia... and most of other weaker countries for that matter, using threats to make their point . Washington needs to understand that after recent  recession fiasco, they do not have the same bite as they used to. They will have to learn how to give concessions and compromises rather than orders and threats, especially in the case of pride driven nations such as Russia and Middle East countries. The demands of the Word's powers are simply unrealistic at this point : stop doing everything ( involving YOUR uranium enrichment) and give us everything you have.... or ELSE. Sounds more like a hold up than negotiating talks.  Especially since Iran's biggest enemy and USA ally-  Israel- is considering pre-emptive military strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities as the talks  unfold. The whole situation is lacking a woman's touch, so to speak. Rather than  discussing the issues, similarities, problems and solutions in a constructive manner, the nations are sizing whose "gun" is bigger. 

Israel and USA need to come to terms with the fact that Iran has uranium and it can do whatever it wants with it. Threats and aggressions will only fuel the Iran's wish to defy the West. Concessions need to be made on the amount of uranium allowed to be enriched by Iran. They will do it anyway! So one might as well give a reasonable amount for Iran to enrich, in exchange for some form of monitoring of their nuclear facilities. In the same way,  Iran should be allowed to stockpile a certain amount of 20% enriched uranium, while giving their promise not to use it for any pre-emptive or offensive action - in fear of risking retaliation by international community.  Although at this time this might seem extreme to Washington or Israel, the continuation of the talks in the current manner is not exactly getting them anywhere. In fact, they are pissing off Iran on daily bases, while Iran is in the continuous process of militarization. This hardly seems like a very clever move.

Moreover, Iran is concerned with the Syrian situation that is greatly destabilizing the region - which is also a huge concern of the Word's powers.  This is a great opportunity for the West to start building a positive relationship with Iran to solve the issue, while creating trust. The opportunity to work together on one issue can greatly facilitate cooperation on other issues as well. If Washington helped Iran to be a stabilizing force in the Middle East - as it did before - then perhaps Iran would not see them as a great evil and concede to their demands on uranium enrichment.