(The following text has been taken from the preface by Peter J. Croll, Director of BICC)
"On 4 December 2008, the Bonn International Center for Conversion (BICC) and Deutsche Welle jointly organized a half-day conference on the nuclear dispute with Iran in Bonn, entitled "After the Elections in the United States: New Chances for a Compromise in the Nuclear Dispute with Iran?" With the forthcoming presidential elections in Iran in mind, one of the aims was to explore the interdependency of international politics and the internal development of Iran.
With this publication the main findings of this well attended conference are made available to the public. Our distinguished panelists were Prof. Dr. Hans Blix, former Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); Dr. Ebrahim Yazdi, Secretary-General of the opposition party Freedom Movement of Iran; Dr. James Walsh, Research Associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; PD Dr. Bernd W. Kubbig, Senior Research Fellow at the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt and Jerry Sommer, Research Associate of BICC.
BICC was founded 15 years ago after the end of the Cold War, when the expectations of a peace dividend were high; the need for conversion planning was great. At the Iran conference, which took place at quite an exiting, possibly even historic, time we dealt with a different kind of conversion - the conversion of policy. The Iran nuclear question was, and still is, at an impasse. But the "wind of change" is blowing through Washington. Although no new policy with regard to the Iran nuclear program has been worked out yet, President Obama has made clear that he wants to engage Iran and that he is willing to talk to Iran directly. However, it is not yet clear what exactly the new US Administration is willing to offer Iran and whether it will still be demanding the suspension and dismantlement of Iran's uranium enrichment program. Also, some high-level representatives of the Obama Administration have waved with 'sticks' threatening new sanctions and declaring that the military option is not off the table.
In Iran, President Ahmadinejad has reacted positively to the overture for a new beginning in the Iran-US relations. However, it is highly unlikely that Iran would yield to the demand of zero enrichment, which would surely be the first best option for excluding any nuclear proliferation danger in the Middle East. What other concessions the ruling élite of Iran would be prepared to make, does not seem to have been decided yet. Although the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Khamenei, will have the final say in any case, the results of the presidential elections of Iran in June will have some impact.
In these times of change, we hope to contribute with this publication to more insight into the Iran nuclear file, viable policy scenarios and possible ways to solve the problem. The contributions presented analyze various aspects of the dispute about the Iranian nuclear program from different points of view. As the readers will realize, some core issues are so central to the discussion that they will be touched upon in several contributions, thought from different angles."