IRANIAN DIPLOMAT: EUROPE HAS TURNED OUT TO BE TOO DEPENDENT

17:56 04/04/2006

Perspectives of the Iranian nuclear problem, place and role of Iran
in regional and international security, as well as influence of power
centers on events around Iran, became discussion issues between Deputy
Ambassador of Iran to Armenia Ali Akbar Jouhar and several Armenian
experts at Noravank Scientific-Educational Center.

As a REGNUM correspondent informs, the Iranian diplomat rather fully
presented matter and process of Iranian nuclear problems’ development,
unambiguously stating that from the very beginning and till present,
Iran has been openly cooperating with IAEA experts.

“They visited all the facilities they wanted, and stressed in
all their reports, Iran did not change peaceful character of
its nuclear program,” mentioned Jouhar. “When we realized, the
international community just ignores our interests – was Iranian
‘nuclear dossier’ worth to be considered by UN Security Council? –
we decided to continue our research under IAEA auspices,” said the
Iranian diplomat. Ali Akbar Jouhar counted those main arguments,
used by certain countries against Iran and its nuclear program:
“The USA maintain, that a state, which has big reserves of energy
carriers, does not need nuclear power engineering.

Second, they doubt of our intentions, reasoning from fact, we have not
timely presented our report for IAEA. Third, Americans speak about
possibility of developing by Iran its nuclear weapon as time goes
by.” “All these arguments do not stand up to criticism – how may a
developing state does not need science and development of new energy
possibilities? Second, today, number of states is not IAEA member
at all; the fact did not prevent them to develop both atomic science
and finally their own nuclear weapon. At the same time, in contrast
to Iran, they did not develop atomic science by themselves, using
their own potential, but they received everything ‘in boxes’. Now,
Israel possesses more then 200 nuclear-tipped warheads, not being
IAEA member,” he stressed.

According to the deputy ambassador of Iran to Armenia, aim of Iran’s
opponents in the question is to hamper Iran’s development, and
weakening of this key country of region. “At present, there are four
main points in Euro-Asian continent – Central Asia, Caucasus, Persian
Gulf – Iraq, and Middle East.” “Iran always played stabilizing role in
region, and without powerful and stable Iran crisis’s in Afghanistan
and Iraq, unstable situation in Caucasus and Central Asia would have
spread to the whole region, and have destabilized international
situation on the whole”, believes the Iranian diplomat. “Iran was
victim of Hussein regime, although it disputed American military
invasion; it was victim of Taliban regime and al Qaeda, established
with active participation of USA. “How has it turned out, Iran is
now considered in Western policy as terrorist state?” asked Ali
Akbar Jouhar himself. According to him, tasks of geopolitical scale
are pursued by such position of Western states, including ones of
hampering international positions and influence of China and Russia.

“We enabled Europe to solve the problem, fully cooperating with us,
but Europe turned out to be too dependent and uncoordinated. Now,
those countries, which somehow relied on Europe, may really evaluate
its weight and abilities,” he stated. Mentioning Russian position,
Ali Akbar Jouhar stressed, Iranian side expected somewhat more from
Moscow, while UN Security Council was resolving. “Of course, Russia
and China played positive role in the process, some work was done by
them, and resolution became different one, comparing with USA initial
draft. But we expected more”, he stated.

Mentioning perspectives of establishing of joint consortium with
Russian side to enrich uranium, Jouhar informed, talks on the problem
continue. “President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stated at UNO, Iranian
side is ready to found international consortium in its territory with
participation of western companies,” he reminded.

“Iran and Russia have to evaluate and realize themselves their role and
interests in international scene, as well as that positive role, played
by Iran to secure stability and security in region,” he stated. “Now,
our relations with Russia and China develop in positive direction,
and these both countries insist on solution of Iranian nuclear problem
in the framework of IAEA,” reminded the Iranian diplomat.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress