Tehran is ready to explain every “suspicious” point of the country’s nuclear program as well as allow experts to Parchin nuclear facility if the IAEA agrees to sign a protocol detailing all its questions, the Iranian ambassador to Russia says.
The protocol should contain all IAEA’s concerns about Parchin and all other objects which the agency suspects of being nuke-oriented, Seyed Mahmoud-Reza Sajjadi has told the Russian media. “And if they don’t find anything, let’s close Iran’s nuclear file and remove it from the UN Security Council.”
The ambassador recalled that Parchin, which the Agency suspects could have been the site of high-explosives tests related to nuclear weapons, had been fully inspected by the IAEA, but then, he said, the agency wanted to undertake further inspections.
“We agreed with a condition that such a protocol would be
signed,” the diplomat said. “We displayed flexibility. We
offered – let’s sign a protocol and spell out in detail all
accusations.” But international experts want to visit the
suspected facility prior to signing the protocol – “this is a
game,” the ambassador said.
“We did not see sincerity in the way that IAEA and Yukiya Amano,
director-general of the UN nuclear watchdog behaved,” Sajjadi
said.
“Right now what the Iranians are saying is that in order for
the agreement to be signed between Iran and the IAEA the two sides
have to trust each other,” Iranian political analyst Seyed
Mohammad Marandi told RT. “And for each ‘give’ there much
be a ‘take’. In other words, if Iran takes a step forward, the IAEA
must give something in return, and vice versa.”
Iran wants inspections at the Parchin military site to be conducted
within a “comprehensive framework”, otherwise “there is
no reason to prevent Americans from saying “No, that wasn’t this
building, it was the other in the Parchin site that we need to
see,” Marandi said, adding that “this story will go on
forever.”
Besides Parchin, the IAEA has suppositions over another Iran’s
facility – Fordo uranium enrichment plant – and demands its
closure. Speaking to journalists, Sajjadi noted that Iran was
not obliged to close the facility and stop uranium enrichment.
"Have you read the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear
Weapons? Does it say that we have no right to enrich uranium to 20
percent?" Sajjadi asked.
He said the demand to shut down Fordo and stop uranium enrichment
was “unfair and ridiculous” and Iran has become a victim of double
standards of the IAEA and the US.
"We doubt the sincerity of the West, because in the past they have done to us illogical proposals, including the closure of Fordo, and promised to allow us to buy gold and metals, as well as to authorize export of petroleum products. But it is unfair and ridiculous proposal ,” said Sajjadi.
"The IAEA was designed to safeguard that no one is developing nuclear weapons. But Israel has a nuclear bomb, and no one cares," said the Iranian ambassador.
He assured that Iran does not pursue nuclear weapons as supreme
leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has made a decision not to build
nuclear weapon.
“Religious fatwa is above the law”, Sajjadi stressed.
Moreover, nuclear weapons would not ensure security for Tehran, but
“on the contrary would bring risk”, he said.
"Now Iran can develop two or three bombs from the materials it
possesses. But if you had a gun with two bullets, would you really
go to war against an army?" said Sajjadi.
The Islamic Republic insists it has no interest in nuclear weapons,
and says it is enriching uranium for purely peaceful purposes, such
as nuclear power.
There have been attempts from both sides to find common ground in
the issue, but negotiations have yielded no results.
The latest Iran’s nuclear talks in Kazakhstan in April also brought
no breakthrough with negotiators going back to their capitals
declaring “positions remain far apart”.
“What came out from these talks was the fact that the
Iranians were willing to be flexible and had an authority to make
decisions, yet the P5+1 led by Ashton did not have room for
maneuver, they did not have the authority to make a decision and
therefore the talks stopped,” Marandi said.
Since then no date or place has been set for new talks.
Meanwhile, Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad is expected to
visit Moscow on July 1-2 as Russia hosts a forum of gas exporting
countries.
“The Iranian president has been invited, and so we are expecting
his visit," Sajjadi said at a meeting, stressing that
Ahmadinejad still will be acting president.