The confrontation between US and Tehran over Iran’s nuclear programme remains very menacing. President Bush has dismissed as “wild speculation” reports that US officials were planning military attacks against suspect sites in Iran. And he has reaffirmed his commitment to using diplomatic means to address concerns about Iran. But his military doctrine of active “prevention” of developments like Iran’s acquisition of nuclear-weapons technology remains in place.

Meanwhile, Bush is urging Congress to take actions that directly contravene the global Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT). He is asking for legislative changes that would allow the export of US nuclear technology to India, a country that remains outside the NPT and has tested a number of weapons.

Is the administration schizophrenic about the NPT? On the one hand, it criticises Iran for not adhering to an optional, superstrict addendum to the NPT called the Additional Protocol, and on the other, it is openly undermining the NPT through its own legislative initiative. I do not think the administration is schizophrenic. Bush and his key advisers probably dislike the NPT just as much as they dislike other international treaties which could constrain US actions, such as the Kyoto Treaty on carbon emissions or the Rome Treaty on the international war-crimes court. But whereas the US has never ratified those other treaties, it has always been a stalwart member of the NPT. Bush and his officials are not arguing that the US should withdraw from the NPT. But the legislative changes he is urging regarding exports of US nuclear technology and materials to India would certainly cause a crisis in US relations with the NPT’s other signatories except India, Pakistan, Israel, and North Korea.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is able to conduct inspections and other verification measures in suspect nations only because the NPT authorises it. Are these verification measures foolproof? No. Several NPT members, including North Korea and Iran, conducted clandestine programmes that it took the IAEA many years to discover. But still, the IAEA’s verification provides a key base line of globally accepted information.

The whole world can see in Iraq a vivid picture of the harmful and destabilising effects of Washington’s pursuit of unilateralism and its use of massive military power. It is the NPT’s version of cooperative harm-reduction and eventual disarmament that we should be strengthening rather than the Bush administration’s preference for unilateral action and its frequent hostility to international agreements.

Nuclear weapons are a challenge to humanity that can’t ever be treated lightly. Our clear aim should be the corralling, deactivation, and destruction of all nuclear weapons. Only international cooperation can achieve this. Let’s strengthen the NPT by rejecting the proposed US nuclear deal with India, and let’s use the NPT’s mechanisms to address our outstanding concerns with Iran. The alternative is incendiary madness. — The Christian Science Monitor