Welcome, I'm Anastasia Glova bringing you the Cato Daily Podcast.

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The crisis over Iran's nuclear activities continues as the

International Atomic Energy Agency's Board of Governors meets this week.

China and Russia are habitually reluctant to apply pressure on Iran and have refused to participate in a joint statement calling for a halt to Iran's enrichment activities.

Our expert today is Vice President for Foreign Policy and Defense Studies Ted Gail and Carpenter.

Iran insists on its sovereign right to enrich Uranium.

Does such a right exist?

Technically such a right does exist under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty,

Member States do have the right to enrich uranium for peaceful power generation purposes.

They do not, however, have the right to highly enrich

uranium for the purpose of building weapons. Iran, of course, insists that its entire

program is for peaceful purposes.

So in other words, we've got a security dilemma on our hands.

How can Iran prove otherwise?

Iran argues that it doesn't have to prove that it is restricting its program to peaceful uses,

that the other powers in the international community have to prove that Iran is not doing so.

When diplomats downplay the have to prove that Iran is not doing so.

When diplomats downplay the significance of China and Russia's refusal to pressure Iran

further, are they bluffing?

Well, that is actually a very important development.

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