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EU "Biggest Loser" If Iran Referred to UN Security Council - Official

Posted on: Tuesday, 11 October 2005, 18:00 CDT

Deputy Director of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Mohammad Sa'idi has said that the European Union has made mistakes in dealing with Iran's nuclear issue, especially its call for Tehran to scrap its nuclear fuel cycle programme. In an interview with ISNA, Sa'idi said: "It would be another great mistake if the EU made efforts to refer Iran to the UN Security Council, because the EU would be the biggest loser in such a turn of events." The following is the text of report in English by Iranian Mehr news agency; agency's subheadings:

Tehran, 11 October: Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Deputy Director Mohammad Sa'idi believes that the European Union has made some mistakes in dealing with Iran's nuclear issue, especially its call for Tehran to scrap its nuclear fuel cycle programme.

It would be another great mistake if the EU made efforts to refer Iran to the UN Security Council, because the EU would be the biggest loser in such a turn of events, ISNA quoted him as saying here on Tuesday [11 October].

According to some accurate domestic and Western opinion polls, over 80 per cent of the Iranian people believe that the country should not give up its nuclear technology, the AEOI deputy director for planning and international affairs added.

Sa'idi believes that the fifth article of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors' recent resolution on Iran's nuclear programme is the most significant part of the document, and that the other articles are meant to pressure Iran to resume negotiations.

He also said that by refusing to relinquish nuclear technology and acquiring other modern technology, Iran can also prevent the brain drain.

Elaborating on what happened in the recent session of the Board of Governors, Sa'idi said that Russia, China, and most Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) member countries realized their influence at the IAEA Board, adding that they will definitely oppose any decision against Iran at future board sessions.

He also said that he was optimistic that satisfactory progress would be made in the process of resolving other disputes between Iran and the IAEA by November.

Both Iran and the EU3 expressed their desire to resume nuclear negotiations, but Iran will not accept any preconditions for the talks and what the Europeans have proposed as a prerequisite for the continuation of talks is not acceptable, Sa'idi added.

Ahmadinezhad's nuclear initiative

Elsewhere in his remarks, Sa'idi said that the AEOI is formulating a plan in line with President Mahmud Ahmadinezhad's nuclear initiative to resolve Iran's latest nuclear standoff with the West.

He went on to say that legal supervision is the most reliable kind of supervision, nowadays, but the most recent proposals call for proprietary supervision over Iran's nuclear installations, which actually goes beyond the previous technical and legal supervision.

With implementation of Ahmadinezhad's nuclear initiative, which calls for the participation of Western companies in Iran's uranium enrichment activities, there would be no possibility whatsoever for Iran to divert from peaceful nuclear activities because Western companies would be Iran's partners in production, the nuclear official noted.

Sa'idi pointed out that the West was still unaware of the details of Ahmadinezhad's nuclear plan to resolve the dispute over Iran's nuclear dossier through technical, legal, and effective monitoring of nuclear activities.

According to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the IAEA Charter, and the Safeguards Agreement, the first paragraph of the recent resolution was legally null and void, he added.

Rejecting the use of the term non-compliance in the resolution, Sa'idi said that according to four internationally accepted documents - i.e. the NPT, IAEA Charter, the additional protocol to the NPT, and the Safeguards Agreement, Iran has always kept its commitments, and so Iran's claim that it has been compliant to commitments can be legally investigated.

Resolution intended to press Iran

Sa'idi, who is a member of the Iranian nuclear negotiating team, said, what happened in the recent session of the Board of Governors can be discussed from different points of view. It first of all created some differences between the members of the European Union. During the session, a number of countries realized that some countries were imposing new regulations on the IAEA.

On the other hand, the rejection of the illegal demands of some European countries led to the creation of disagreements between three groups on the IAEA Board. The first group wanted to settle the dispute over Iran's nuclear dossier through negotiation. The second group, which included China and Russia, claimed that the IAEA had sufficient opportunities to investigate Iran's dossier, and the third group consisted of the NAM member countries, among whom it seems a new change had occurred, Sa'idi added.

EU broke off nuclear negotiations

Elsewhere in his remarks, Sa'idi said that Iran never broke off the nuclear talks with EU3, noting that it was Europe that broke off the negotiations.

He also said that Iran sought negotiations in which rights are respected and which are held within a specific period of time.

Sa'idi also noted: Just as Europe expects Iran to be faithful to its nuclear commitments, Iran also expects Europe to recognize Iran's international rights, so that the way would be paved for negotiation.

He stated that several European countries want to see the dispute over Iran's nuclear dossier resolved through negotiations and seek to convince the other European counties that prefer other methods.

Threat [to send Iran's nuclear case] to UN Security Council, EU's second mistake

He also said that the EU made a mistake, when it assumed that Iran would agree to give up the nuclear fuel cycle in exchange for economic, technical, political, and security incentives.

However, they realized their mistake in Paris, and so they corrected their mistake in their August proposal. Nevertheless, they made another mistake since they did not recognize Iran's right to possess the nuclear fuel cycle, he explained.

Sa'idi warned that the EU would be making another mistake if it sought to refer Iran's nuclear dossier to the United Nation's Security Council.

National consensus, a forte in Iran's cooperation with the world

He stated that the national nuclear consensus is a forte and a great support for Iran in its dealings with the West on its nuclear dossier, adding that according to a number of domestic and foreign opinion polls, over 80 per cent of Iranians believe the country should possess nuclear technology.

He noted that the recent national consensus on the nuclear dossier was unique.

Nuclear technology was one of the government's concerns when Mirhoseyn Musavi was prime minister, it also became a prime concern of the Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani administration, and, finally, a national plan was formulated during the Mohammad Khatami administration to develop civilian nuclear technology, so the necessary budgets were allocated for this objective, he added.

Iran made great progress in the field of nuclear technology during the Khatami administration and Iran's nuclear programme was a national plan which was initiated some seven years before the victory of the Islamic Revolution, Sa'idi underlined.

Source: BBC Monitoring Middle East

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