Abstract
“A relentless drumbeat of public doubt about Iranian compliance with arms control commitments could lead to missed opportunities at a time when Iran may be heading toward reform, greater openness, and a greater interest in building international confidence… American and Israeli rightists are quick to suggest the military option, and Iranians are painfully aware of how popular that option is among prominent Republicans and hardline opinion-mongers.”
The words sound like they could have been written today about the latest talks in Vienna. But they actually appeared 16 years ago in  a Bulletin article by Eric Arnett, “Iran is not Iraq.” Arnett, head of the Military Technology Project at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, noted that for all its faults, Iran “has the best arms control and norm-building record in the Middle East. Iran is party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC). It has unilaterally signed and ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), unilaterally capped its ballistic missile program, participates in the UN Arms Register—revealing imports that previously had not been known to the public and were not reported by the supplier—and it has taken the initiative in promoting regional confidence-building measures.”
Read the full article here.