Prevention of Nuclear Proliferation

John McDonnell Excerpts

Tuesday 13th December 2011 Commons Chamber

[John McDonnell (Hayes and Harlington) (Lab)]

I, too, preface my remarks by stating that I have been a consistent opponent of the regime in Iran. I founded the Hands Off the People of Iran organisation in this country to campaign for the restoration of democracy in Iran and, with my hon. Friend the Member for Islington North (Jeremy Corbyn) and the hon. Member for Northampton South (Mr Binley), have signed a number of early-day motions in support of human rights in Iran. I have focused on the persecution of trade unionists, particularly those in the Tehran bus workers union, but I also led the campaign in this country to free Jafar Panahi, the film director.

Having said all that, I am extremely fearful of the statutory instrument under consideration, because I fear that it will take us into the cul-de-sac of war, which is an all too familiar path for us in this country: we seem to find an opponent, which is usually associated with minerals or oil; we then find that it is a threat to world safety; and we then find or concoct evidence of that threat. The International Atomic Energy Agency’s recent report failed to find any conclusive evidence of nuclear weapons production and, in fact, found no evidence of Iran’s

“diversion of declared nuclear material”

to weapons production.

The report relies on past evidence, which we have debated in the House before: a laptop computer, originating we believe from the Israeli or US intelligence services and referring to the development of a nuclear weapons programme by a certain scientist, Vyacheslav Danilenko. We were told at one point that this Ukrainian was a nuclear science expert, but we now discover that he was an expert in nanotechnology and had no real expertise in nuclear weapons. We were told also that there was a technique, supposedly being developed by the Iranians, involving a test explosion chamber, but we now know from the evidence of Robert Kelly, the chief of the IAEA for eight years in Iraq, that the chamber could never be used in a test.

[Mr Binley]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

--- Later in debate ---

[John McDonnell]

I would, but we are short of time, so if the hon. Gentleman does not mind, I will not. I am sure that he understands.

All that evidence led to the conclusion by Mr Mohamed el-Baradei, the former head of the IAEA, that he had “no confidence” in the allegations based upon it, but it has convinced the new head of the IAEA, Mr Yukiya Amano. WikiLeaks has, unfortunately, exposed comments from the US on Mr Amano, however, whom it describes as

“solidly in the US court”

and “ready for prime time”.

So I begin to doubt the independence of his judgment on the matter.

It seems that we are being drawn into an atmosphere of war, and sanctions lead to war. Recent research by Professor Robert Pape of the university of Chicago demonstrates that 95.7% of cases of sanctions since world war one have led to military conflict, but who suffers? I agree with my hon. Friend the Member for Islington North that it is not the elite, but the poorest. The reaction is usually for the ruling elite to blame the ills of the country on foreign forces, and sometimes it even unites the country against a foreign foe, but the tragedy is that sanctions often motivate a regime to seek to protect itself by acquiring the very weapons that we seek to rid ourselves of.

There has been military action on the ground already. We have evidence of that from various reports—not just the drone, but intelligence assets on the ground relating to assassinations. The chair of our own parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee could not rule out such assassinations having been undertaken by Israelis, and he confirmed that on occasions the US and Israeli Governments have given authority for assassinations.

I just want to get on the record my fear that we have trodden this path before, and that after sanctions come the bombs, then invasion, then loss of life, destabilisation and a growth in terrorism, then usually the installation of a puppet regime and the privatisation and exploitation by western countries of the mineral and oil resources. I hope against hope that we are not embarking on that tonight with this statutory instrument, but I have this dreadful fear of “Here we go again”.