What are the conceptual basis and contextual discourse of the IAEA towards Iran’s nuclear program? How this discourse and behavior has been shaped within the IAEA as a professional apolitical agency? These are main questions which this paper would like to answer.
There are two distinctive discourses in the General Assembly and the Board of Governors of the Agency: a discourse which concentrates on nuclear security, threat of nuclear terrorism and non-proliferation, adopted by the United States and Western countries, and the discourse which emphasizes on the need for development of peaceful nuclear technology and disarmament, as envisaged in the NPT, supported by the developing countries and by the Non-Aligned Movement member States, in particular.
The article reviews and underline the conceptual elements of the different discourses at the IAEA. The underlying causes of the IAEA submission to the hegemonic discourse of the US and the West are highlighted. The overwhelming influence of security discourse of the US on the legal/technical discourse of the IAEA will be suggested as the root-cause of discriminatory behavior of the Agency towards Iran.