Iran Press: Keyhan Managing Editor Urges Withdrawal From NPT After Resolution

Text of report entitled:” Managing Editor of Keyhan: Withdrawing From the NPT Is Iran’s Wise Reaction to the UN Resolution” by Iranian newspaper Keyhan on 25 January

“Setting 3,000 centrifuge machines in motion, the position adopted by Iran, as stated by Dr Larijani in his interview with Keyhan, is good as the first step after the enactment of the resolution [ 1737 of the UN Security Council] but not enough.”

In an interview with the nuclear energy correspondent of ISNA [Iranian Students News Agency], Hoseyn Shari’atmadari, the managing editor of Keyhan, pointed to the enactment of a resolution by the UN Security Council against Iran and said: “Withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty will be Iran’s good response to the resolution.”

He added: “Though the resolution passed has been diluted, it calls for imposing sanctions on Iran, and the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency is to examine Iran’s abidance by the resolution sixty days after the passage of the resolution and report the result of its investigation to the Board of Governors of the IAEA and the UN Security Council simultaneously.”

Calling the resolution illegal, he said: “Essentially, referring the Iranian case to the UN Security Council by the board of governors was an illegal decision. The UN Security Council does not have reliable legal reasons so support its decision and has only surrendered to political demands of the 5+1 group.”

Stating that Iran’s withdrawal from the NPT will be an acceptable response, Shari’atmadari said: “Any flexibility shown by Iran in response to the resolution by the UN Security Council will only encourage the West.”

Emphasizing that Iran must withdraw from the NPT because such treaty does not really exist, he said: “Unfortunately, some Iranian officials think the West will interpret Iran’s withdrawal from the NPT as an attempt to produce nuclear weapons but this conclusion exists in their mind because article 10 of the NPT permits every country that feel its national sovereignty is incompatible to cooperation with the IAEA to leave it.”

Referring to the double standard practiced by the UN Security Council, he said: “The UN Security Council’s resolution against Iran injured the world peace and was a gift to Israel.”

To what extent the resolution may pave the way for negotiations, Shari’atmadari pointed to the letter of the British Foreign Ministry to foreign ministers of France, Germany, and America before the presentation of the package of incentives to Iran and said: “This letter states that incentives must be offered to Iran to change a voluntary suspension of peaceful nuclear activities to a permanent suspension, and then the negotiations can be continued.”

He added: “Basically, the West did not engage in the negotiations to find a solution to the problem. The West only wanted to deny nuclear technology to Iran. After three years of negotiations, Europeans stated openly at the London meeting that the best objective guarantee is the total suspension of nuclear activities by Iran. Therefore, when the other party declares its intention and accepts no flexibility in advance negotiation will be meaningless.”

Shari’atmadari believes that the resolution is mostly a psychological warfare against Iran. He added: “As the UN Security Council was taking a measure against Iran America announced it would send another warship to the Persian Gulf and Britain would accompany America in this expedition.”

He said: “The essence of the UN Security Council Resolution 1737, which was passed yesterday, is focused on the suspension of enrichment. Therefore, it is Iran’s declared decision that 3,000 centrifuge machines will be set in motion is a good but sufficient stand.”

(c) 2007 BBC Monitoring Middle East. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.