Iran's nuclear ambitions are a means to an end, one way or the other. They claim they only want nuclear energy, but the American politicians seem to believe that Iran wants nuclear bombs. It's an ironic paradox that the path to energy could also be the path to destruction. But what if there were a way to turn the paradox inside-out?
Here's a simple proposal:
The United States could easily provide enough electricity to keep Iran running, so why not just give them all the electricity they need in exchange for something like half of Iran's enriched uranium each year? There could be a certain minimum amount to incentivize Iran to gather up more uranium from the middle east and whatever other sources to keep the electricity flowing in the long term.
If cheap electricity is really all Iran wants then they should embrace a deal like that, otherwise if they refuse then it would prove to the rest of the world that America was right about Iran all along. The market value of uranium might not be worth that electricity, but the U.S. could easily get its own uranium anyway. The whole point is to buy peace with trade. And if you're wondering how the U.S. would get the electricity to Iran, it could be provided by American ships docked in the Persian Gulf.
According to Wikipedia, in 2013 Iran used roughly 70,000 Mega Watts of electricity, but about 23.5% of it was wasted during transmission on Iran's power grid. America has a Corps Or Engineers that could expedite the electrical connection from American ships and they could even help build up the Iranian power grid infrastructure to make it more efficient. Iran employs almost one million workers in its energy sector, which is more than 1% of its population. With numbers like that it's easy to see that Iran has an intense focus on electricity. But what would happen to those million workers and their families if America suddenly gave Iran all the electricity it needed? Well, no plan is perfect, and that's the part I haven't figured out yet. Maybe some politicians can solve that one.
The interesting part would be how long Iran could keep supplying the U.S. with uranium. When Iran can't find or enrich enough uranium to meet the trade minimum then maybe they could consider what else Iran could do to keep the American energy flowing there... maybe trade oil for electricity. This sort of thing would work best as a long-term deal anyway, so why not plan ahead?
But why would the U.N. and other nations allow a deal like that? One would think that preventing war would be a good enough reason, but maybe the U.S. could agree to limit its nuclear bomb production to some multiple based on the amount of uranium that it gets from Iran for a certain amount of time.
Why should the United States do such a favor for Iran? Here are a few reasons:
- It would bring the world closer to peace, and further away from war.
- It would likely drain uranium out of the Middle-East.
- It could lead to an Oil-For-Electricity deal, ultimately giving both countries exactly what they want.
- The rest of the world would probably respect America for making peace with Iran.
- Using capitalism to promote peace would make democracy look good by fixing a regional socialism issue.
- Disarming the nuclear race might actually move the Doomsday Clock backwards.
This deal would make no assumptions about Iran's intended use of the uranium, it would simply trade electricity for it. There has been so much perceived aggression between the U.S. and Iranian politicians, I hope it's not too late for them to put their differences aside and give peace a chance.