Two days of talks
between the world powers and Iran in Baghdad late
last month produced few tangible results, save an
agreement to continue for another round set in
Moscow, due to start on June 17. On Monday,
International Atomic Energy Agency Director
General Yukiya Amano said his organization would
meet with Iran on June 8. Ali Asghar Soltanieh,
Iran's Ambassador to the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA), spoke with Kaveh L Afrasiabi
in an exclusive interview for Asia Times Online.
Kaveh Afrasiabi: Your
Excellency, the Governing Board of the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) just
concluded a two-day meeting. Regarding Iran, what
happened at this meeting?
Ali Asghar
Soltanieh: This was one of the routine
meetings of the IAEA's Board of Governors that
dealt with a number of issues including
membership, nuclear supply, implementation of
agreements, agenda of
future meetings, etc. With respect to Iran, once
again, the representatives of the Non-Aligned
Movement consisting of more than 100 countries
supported Iran and Iran's nuclear rights in a
statement that was read by the Egyptian
ambassador. I presented a statement that tried to
focus on the status quo, identifying the
shortcomings, the worrying trends, and
recommending constructive improvements.
Specifically, I warned that a couple of
Western governments want to manipulate and divert
the IAEA from its mandate. They are trying to turn
the Agency's "nuclear material driven safeguards"
into an "intelligence driven safeguards". But the
IAEA is an international technical organization,
not an intelligence service. As a result, the IAEA
inspectors are forced by a couple of member states
to be involved in intelligence activities,
receiving fabricated information from the
intelligence services of certain countries, or
allegations of activities not involving nuclear
activities. This is not acceptable at all and
ultimately damages the trustful relation expected
between the Secretariat and Member States.
With respect to Iran, following the recent
Tehran visit of the Director-General, we are
trying to open a new chapter in our relations with
the agency, which is why another meeting with the
IAEA officials has been scheduled for June 8 to
discuss a modality that would provide a structured
approach to cover all the issues of concern in the
annex section of the November 2011 IAEA report on
Iran.
KA: What is your reaction to
the recent reports in the Western media alleging
that Iran has "cleansed" and then destroyed a
suspected building at Parchin military complex and
removed the soil?
AAS:
Unfortunately we have seen many examples of such
baseless noise based on lousy intelligence during
the past 10 years or so. To give an example, in
2004 I accompanied the IAEA inspectors to a site
that had been cited in the intelligence reports
based on satellite images and there were a lot of
noise at the time about secret uranium mine,
enrichment and so forth. And yet, the inspectors
clearly confirmed that those allegations were
false and the site was a normal factory with
nothing suspicious.
KA: So,
is the IAEA's request to visit the Parchin
military complex on the agenda of the new
framework for cooperation?
AAS: As I said, all the
issues raised in the annex of November 2011 report
will be covered by this modality.
KA: Since the IAEA's
requests go beyond the present safeguard agreement
with Iran, isn't the new modality tantamount to a
de facto implementation of the intrusive
Additional Protocol by Iran and, if so, what are
the chances that Iran will formally adopt the
Additional Protocol in the future?
AAS: Well, Iran was
implementing the Additional Protocol for
two-and-a-half years until Iran was unjustly
referred to the UN Security Council. Parliament
then directed the government to limit its
cooperation with the IAEA, to limit it to within
the framework of the safeguard agreement.
Therefore any possibility for re-adopting the
Additional Protocol depends on the resolution of
the issues with respect to the UN Security
Council.
KA: Will the
implementation of the new modality lead to the
possibility of "routine" treatment of Iran's
nuclear file?
AAS: We are
determined to engage intensively with the
Secretariat, especially the Director-General, with
the expectation of prompt closure of the issue. As
I have repeatedly said, unfortunately Iran's file
has been politicized and manipulated by raising a
lot of old and irrelevant issues.
We had
another agreement, a workplan, with the IAEA a few
years ago that called for routine treatment of
Iran's file after all the outstanding issues were
resolved, which were in fact resolved entirely in
Iran's favor, and yet unfortunately that did not
happen solely as a result of IAEA's manipulation
by certain governments.
Iran has provided
one the most robust inspections in IAEA's history,
in light of more than 4,000 man-days of
inspections as well as over 100 unannounced
inspections in Iran. These inspections have
confirmed that not even one gram of nuclear
material has been diverted to military purposes,
and the various reports of the current
Director-General and his predecessor confirm this.
Frankly, the only reason the Iran file is
still open is due to the politically-motivated
allegations by a couple of western countries
influencing the IAEA. But, we remain hopeful that
the IAEA will conduct itself toward Iran in a more
balanced and professional way far from political
and media noise.
KA: What is
your reaction to the recent US media news that the
US President Barack Obama had authorized the
Stuxnet cyber attack on Iran?
AAS: Our position is very
simple: Neither the Stuxnet nor Flame [the latest
cyber attack] nor other acts of sabotage or
attacks on our scientists, etc, will have any
effect on our determination to pursue our nuclear
rights within the framework of NPT [the nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty]. In fact, such illegal
actions against Iran increase our determination to
continue the path of Iran's peaceful nuclear
program.
KA: In the past you
have criticized the IAEA leadership's bias with
respect to Iran. Are you hopeful that the agency
will now conduct itself in a more balanced way
toward Iran?
AAS: We
certainly hope so. The Director-General's recent
visit to Iran was a positive step forward and we
are determined to cooperate with the IAEA and to
make sure that it will have less problematic
reports on Iran, such as avoiding hasty
conclusions without the completion of technical
studies, as was the case with the report on the
27% enrichment. But, in light of the steady
progress on the issue of modality, we are
expecting a better and friendlier approach toward
Iran.
KA: What is the
connection between the Iran-IAEA talks and the
parallel multilateral talk between Iran and the
"P5 +1" nations [the five UN Security Council
permanent members plus Germany] which is scheduled
to continue in Moscow later this month?
AAS: The issue is very
simple. The other side in the negotiations between
Iran and the "P5 +1" have been insisting for
several years to talk about the nuclear issue and
for the first time in Istanbul [host to a P5+1
meeting with Iran in April], Iran made a
compromise and let the issue to be discussed.
Therefore, it is only natural to expect that the
matter of Iran's comprehensive cooperation with
the IAEA will be spotlighted at those meetings.
KA: Are you optimistic about
the prospects for the upcoming meeting in Moscow?
AAS: As I mentioned in my
statement today, on the eve of the Moscow meeting
I advise the parties to refrain from making any
statements and initiatives that can create a
negative environment. For the Moscow talks to be
constructive, it has to have the right atmosphere
that is not polluted by the negative input of
false allegations and propaganda. We must build on
the confidence-building that has been generated as
a result of the talks. At the moment, attempts are
underway to prepare the provisional agenda of the
Moscow meeting and to make other preparatory
agreements in order to facilitate an effective
meeting in Moscow.
Kaveh L
Afrasiabi, PhD, is the author of After
Khomeini: New Directions in Iran's Foreign Policy
(Westview Press) and Reading In Iran
Foreign Policy After September 11(BookSurge
Publishing, 2008). His latest book is UN
Management Reform: Selected Articles and
Interviews on United Nations CreateSpace
(November 12, 2011).
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