IRAN REJECTS TURKISH ROLE IN NUCLEAR TALKS
Asbarez
Dec 8th, 2009
Iranian technicians, work with foreign colleagues at the Bushehr
Nuclear Power Plant. AP photo
TEHRAN (Hurriyet)-Iran rejected a Turkish role in its nuclear impasse
with Western countries on Tuesday and said there would be no need
for third-party mediation in the nuclear dispute.
The Persian Gulf country also said it had no faith in world powers,
calling on them to earn Tehran’s trust before the Islamic Republic
will agree to a U.N.-brokered nuclear fuel deal.
Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast implicitly rejected
Turkey’s desire to mediate between it and world powers, a possibility
raised by U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday during talks with
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
"The Iranian stance in the nuclear dispute is quite clear and there
is no need for a third party to mediate," Mehmanparast told reporters
at a news conference in Tehran.
The Turkish option, which International Atomic Energy Agency
Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei proposed on Nov. 6, was discussed
by top Turkish and Iranian leaders during Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad’s November visit to Istanbul. ElBaradei offered Turkey
as a third party to send Iran’s enriched uranium – an alternative to
a plan for Russia to do the work.
During his visit to the United States, Erdogan criticized the U.N.
nuclear watchdog’s censure of Iran as a "very rushed" move and insisted
Tehran’s nuclear program should be dealt with diplomatically.
In Tehran, Mehmanparast also shrugged off threats of sanctions from
some Western powers, saying this would only help Tehran gain further
self-sufficiency in its nuclear program. "We never said we will not
do [the nuclear fuel deal]," Mehmanparast told reporters when asked
whether Iran was still considering entering the deal brokered by the
International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA.
World powers had backed the IAEA proposal under which Iran would send
most of its low-enriched uranium to Russia and France for conversion
into nuclear fuel for a research reactor in the capital.
But Tehran also rejected the proposal last month, insisting it wanted
to hand over its low-enriched uranium at the same time it receives
the 20 percent enriched uranium, and that the handover must take
place simultaneously inside Iran.
"The question is the attitude of some Western countries in the past,"
Mehmanparast said, adding that Iran had lost trust in these countries
that did not keep their promises. "We cannot listen to them easily. If
they can provide conditions that can gain our trust, we are ready to
exchange the fuel."
Western powers suspect Tehran is pursuing nuclear technology to make
atomic weapons. Iran denies the charge, saying its ambitions are to
gain peaceful nuclear power. Mehmanparast said solving the controversy
over Tehran’s nuclear drive did not need additional parties.
"A number of countries are interested in playing a role in the problem
created by the big nations for the independent ones. And Turkey wants
to play a role in solving the nuclear issue between the countries
who have the technology and the countries who are seeking it," he said.
"But we don’t think that our views are non-transparent and they
needed to be interpreted by others. All our nuclear work is under
the supervision of the agency and we have informed it of our future
plans," Mehmanparast said.
"It is also aware of the approach of our parliament. We have revealed
our plans very transparently to it," he said in reference to the
Iranian parliament’s call on the government to reduce ties with the
IAEA after it censured Tehran for building a new uranium enrichment
plant.
Mehmanparast also dismissed Western threats to impose a fourth set
of U.N. sanctions on Tehran if it does not come clean on its nuclear
program. "This is the continuation of the same incorrect approach
of the past. Such threats and deadlines do not work. Sanctions are
nothing new for Iran," he said.
"At every stage of sanctions, we have reached a higher level of
self-sufficiency and gained further independence. If there is another
round of sanctions we will be more serious [in pursuing nuclear
technology]," he said.