Scott Ritter: 'politically motivated hype' over Iran

'Iran is simply trying to do that which it is legally allowed to do'

Former UN Weapons Inspector says United States, Israel creating Iran crisis 'out of nothing'.

NEW YORK - Former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter warned Tuesday against the “politically motivated hype” over Iran’s nuclear program.

"The Obama administration has come to a preordained conclusion that there’s nothing that can be done about Iran’s nuclear program, that Iran either has to get rid of it all, or there’s nothing to discuss about. That’s not much of a discussion," Ritter told Democracy Now!.

"Here we are condemning Iran for doing its job, declaring a facility, inviting inspectors in. And the conclusion it’s reached from this? That they’re producing nuclear weapons," said Ritter.

"This is politically motivated hype designed to create a situation this coming Thursday that will find the United States unable to reach any sort of agreement with Iran about its nuclear program," he added.

Ritter, former UN weapons inspector in Iraq from 1991-1998, is author of Target Iran.

"Even if Iran produces this new facility, which, by the way, is not in operation and won’t be in operation for over a year, no nuclear material has been diverted, there still is a full material balance, and the IAEA is in complete control of the situation. Iran is not in violation," explained Ritter.

"This is much ado about nothing. But again, we come back to the original premise: this is about political hype, the United States hyping up a capability in Iran which doesn’t exist, and that is the capability to produce nuclear weapons," Ritter added.

Ritter explained the vital Iranian need for nuclear energy.

The Iranians "strategically require an additional source of energy, such as nuclear energy" to supplement their domestic energy usage so that they free up their oil production and gas production for exportation, so they can earn money. "This is a big deal. This isn’t insignificant," explained Ritter.

However, Israel and the United States say they want to bomb Iranian nuclear facility, prompting Tehran to react.

"The first thing you do is you build redundancy, and that’s what this new Qom facility represents. It’s redundancy. It’s a backup to the Natanz primary facility. Again, it’s been declared, no nuclear material has been diverted. But it’s there as a backup. The second thing you do is you fire off missiles in a warning that you have an inherent right and capability of self-defense," said Ritter.

Israel has launched a massive air exercise last year, in which it demonstrated the ability to fly hundreds of aircraft the distance necessary to strike targets in Iran.

The United States is also carrying out exercises with Israel.

"The bottom line is it’s the United States and Israel which are the more aggressive of the players here. Iran is not an aggressor. Iran has not attacked anybody. Iran is simply trying to do that which it is legally allowed to do: produce enriched uranium for the purposes of nuclear power," said Ritter.

"It’s Israel, which, by the way, is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, claims it will never be a signatory and has a massive nuclear weapons capability—it’s Israel and the United States which are creating a crisis out of nothing," he added.