By Cliff Montgomery – Nov. 27th, 2011
The United Nation’s atomic energy agency “has ‘broken the rules’ by publicly releasing a report on Iran’snuclear program that should have been kept confidential,” an Iranian nuclear expert apparently tells a top U.S.think-tank.
Seyed Hossein Mousavian is “Iran’s former lead nuclear negotiator, and a visiting research scholar at[Princeton University’s] Woodrow Wilson School’s Program on Science and Global Security,” according to abiographical statement published by the school.
And since Mousavian served as a leading adviser to such Iranian political figures as reformist former PresidentMohammad Khatami and moderate former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, his statements carry at leastsome weight.
On Nov. 18th, the Bulletin of The Atomic Scientists–a top think-tank which chiefly discusses nuclear weaponsissues–published a very interesting interview with Mousavian on the West’s testy interactions with Iran.
The former nuclear negotiator appears to single out the United States, Germany and France as being especiallyunreasonable toward Iran.
In the interview, Mousavian’s essential point is that “the [released International Atomic Energy Agency, orIAEA] report represents a step backward in efforts to deal with Iran’s nuclear program,” according to theBulletin.
To help repair the growing tensions between Iran, the U.S. and the U.N., Mousavian believes the West shouldwork with Iran on a couple of key issues:
- Firstly, Germany and the UN Security Council should work toward an agreement that allows Iran the capacity to enrich uranium, with a proof that such enrichment is solely for peaceful matters
- Secondly, Iran and the U.S should attempt to honestly–but respectfully–address the “long list of grievances” which continues to poison all discussion between the two countries.
“The IAEA has, unfortunately, broken the rules of the game. Iran does not want to commit the same mistake,”Mousavian told the Bulletin.
“The issues between the agency and member states should remain confidential,” continued Mousavian. “Yet,the content of the IAEA reports on Iran are leaked to the media ahead of their distribution among the agency’smember states.”
“This is highly unprofessional and against the statute of the agency,” stated Iran’s former nuclear negotiator.“Such behavior is highly damaging to the credibility of the IAEA, as an impartial international body.”
“It also clearly demonstrates that the information is dictated to the agency from somewhere else,” statedMousavian, “in order to make the case for ratcheting up pressure on Iran.”
“The recent developments constitute another chapter in the long tale of Western miscalculations about Iran,”pointed out Mousavian. “The West has constantly resorted to escalating pressure on Tehran, withoutpondering about the resulting backlash.”
“After the 1979 revolution, Iran sought to shrink the nuclear program and had no intention to have indigenousuranium enrichment,” declared the former negotiator.
“Nevertheless, the Germans, the French, and the Americans refused to respect their contractualcommitments,” continued Mousavian, and added that those countries “abandoned our unfinished nuclearprojects, rebuffed our demands for compensation, and denied us nuclear fuel.”
“Therefore, Iran had no other option than to take matters into its own hands and aim at self-sufficiency,” hesaid.
“This was in no way a unique venture. The West provided Saddam Hussein with chemical and biologicalweapons, which he used against Iranians with impunity,” Mousavian pointed out.
“As the first victims of weapons of mass destruction since the Second World War, Iran felt compelled todevelop chemical and biological deterrence capabilities,” he added.
“The same logic applies to Iran’s ballistic missile program, which was created to counter Iraq’s Western-supplied long-range missiles,” said Mousavian.
“Therefore, you can trace back the root of Iran’s current deterrence capabilities to the sense of solitude thatTehran experienced during the Iran-Iraq War,” he declared.
“That’s why I believe that the West has, inadvertently or not, always pushed Iran in the wrong direction,” addedMousavian.
