Madam, - An otherwise astute Editorial on the crisis over Iran's arrest of British naval personnel ("Iran needs to rethink tactics", March 31st) refers to Iran's "nuclear weapons programme". In fact Iran's nuclear programme remains well within the rights afforded to it under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The allegations of a covert weapons programme come from a number of governments, two of which illegally invaded Iran's neighbour in 2003. And ironically, as Lara Marlowe reported in your pages in February, one of those governments is in the process of updating its nuclear "defence" system at a cost of £100 billion, in contradiction to its responsibilities under the NPT.
The Irish Times has a duty to be conscious of the dangers of disseminating propaganda at a time when international "diplomacy" is appearing more and more like a precursor to war. - Yours, etc,
DAVID MANNING, Sandymount, Dublin 4.