@@ His Excellency Ambassador Zarif on PBS TV @@

Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)
April 28, 2006

Newsmaker: His Excellency Dr. Mohammad Javad Zarif

An International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report delivered to the UN Security
Council Friday accuses Iran of defying Western calls to end uranium enrichment.
Following a report on President Bush's statements, Iran's Ambassador to the United
Nations (http://www.un.int/iran/welcome/zarif.htm) defends his country's right to a
civilian nuclear program.

RAY SUAREZ (PBS): Welcome, Mr. Ambassador. Today was the deadline set by the IAEA for
Iranian compliance shutting down its enrichment. Did you respond officially to that
request or simply ignore it?

H. E. AMBASSADOR ZARIF: Well, it's good to be with you, and good evening to you.

We said very clearly that Iran does not want to pursue a nuclear weapons program. It
is not in our strategic interest. At the same time, Iran believes -- and I believe
the majority of the international community share this opinion -- that, in order for
the international nonproliferation regime to be sustained, you need to respect the
rights of member states.

We made it very clear that Iran does not respond well to pressure, that Iran would
cooperate, if the cooperation takes place in an atmosphere conducive to reaching
substantive conclusions.

I would like to point out that in September of 2005, before the series of pressures
through the IAEA board of governors imposed by the United States started, the IAEA
was reporting good progress being made in ascertaining the extent and context of
Iran's nuclear program.

We know that, through our cooperation, the IAEA has been able to verify a good number
of outstanding issues. And Iran has been prepared to allow the IAEA to reach a
definitive conclusion on our program.

Unfortunately, for some arbitrary red lines, as well as arbitrary deadlines, have
been the order of the day, not to seek solutions, but in fact to push towards a
crisis. And if a crisis is what they want and what they seek to achieve,
unfortunately, that would be the case.

But we believe a crisis is not necessary, because we share the goal of the
international community that no country should have nuclear weapons, and Iran
certainly is a country that is committed to nonproliferation and does not want to
seek or produce nuclear weapons.

RAY SUAREZ: Mr. Ambassador, you quote a 2005 report that cites good progress in the
IAEA-Iran relationship. But today's report from the agency says that your country has
curtailed its cooperation, made it very difficult for the agency to monitor your
activities. And instead of shutting down enrichment, as they requested, you've
accelerated it. Is that true?

H. E. AMBASSADOR ZARIF: Well, in fact, we've said that cooperation and confrontation
cannot go together. Iran has provided a choice: If the United States and the Western
countries cooperating with the United States are looking for confrontation, then they
should not expect Iran to go out of its legal obligations to be cooperative in ways
that it's not obliged to.

However, we have said, if the path of cooperation and reaching a resolution is
chosen, then Iran is prepared to go out of its way, as it has done in the past.

As you know, Iran has opened its doors to the IAEA, has allowed about 2000 days of
inspections in Iran in the past three years, allowed many visits even to military
sites, which Iran was not obliged to do, in order to allay any concerns that our
military sites had nothing to do with any nuclear program.

We did all of that in order to show our willingness to adopt the path of cooperation.
But, unfortunately, since the Security Council adopted the [non-binding] presidential
statement, it was very clear -- and the report of the director-general makes it again
clear -- that Iran is prepared to cooperate, provided that the United States does not
choose the path of confrontation.

RAY SUAREZ: Well, you've just described what you view as your country's extensive
cooperation with the international community. What has the IAEA asked for that Iran
has decided it is unwilling to give?

H. E. AMBASSADOR ZARIF: Well, basically, we are prepared to provide information to
the IAEA to the extent that information is available. As you know, proof of a
negative fact is impossible, but Iran is prepared.

We have nothing to hide. Iran's nuclear program is exclusively for peaceful purposes,
and we are prepared to cooperate with the IAEA; we have been prepared to cooperate
with the IAEA in order to clarify that.

If you look at the report of the director-general that was issued today, he once
again indicates that there was no indication of any military activity in Iran, and he
also indicates that Iran has officially informed him that it is ready to help him
ascertain the outstanding issues and resolve the outstanding issues, provided that
this issue is dealt with in the technical framework within which it should have been
dealt with from the very beginning.

RAY SUAREZ: Recently, Iran confirmed that it refined a large amount of uranium to
power-plant grade. Your president, Ahmadinejad, announced that he'd like to continue
research with even more powerful and sophisticated centrifuges.

Would you accept the world's verdict that if you're not refining for weapons-grade
material you sure look like you are, that you're doing what countries who are
preparing to get weapons-grade uranium do?

H. E. AMBASSADOR ZARIF: First of all, there is no world conclusion or any indictment
by the international community that Iran is pursuing anything other than a peaceful
nuclear program. The United States wants to repeat that often, and in numerous
circumstances, in order to create an impression as if this was the case.

Iran's program is exclusively peaceful. We have said that we will put a cap on the
level of enrichment, as you said, to the reactor-grade enrichment, and that is quite
different from what is required for illicit purposes of producing weapons, and that
Iran has said very clearly that we're not interested in.

In fact, Iran has provided, made proposals, to put into motion and put in place a
good number of political, legal, technical and monitoring mechanisms in order to
verify that our program would remain exclusively peaceful, that the enrichment, which
is our inalienable right, will not exceed the level that would be required for our
reactors.

And we have been prepared to go out of our way in order to provide these assurances.
Unfortunately, the arbitrary red lines that have been drawn, which have no base in
any international treaty or any international regime -- and the IAEA is record
accepting that -- have precluded the possibility of moving forward with these very
substantive and, in fact, conducive proposals that have been presented by Iran, as
well as many other countries and nongovernmental organizations.

RAY SUAREZ: Earlier today at the White House, President Bush said that he, his
government, and the world don't want Iran to have even the knowledge of how to make a
nuclear weapon. If your program continues at its current pace, will you end up with
that knowledge?

H. E. AMBASSADOR ZARIF: Well, I do not know what President Bush is talking about.
Iran has the knowledge to enrich uranium; we do not want the knowledge to build
nuclear weapons; Iran is opposed to nuclear weapons, and we have made that extremely
clear.

On the other hand, the U.S. president is not in a position to set criteria or
guidelines for other countries. There are a body of international rules and norms. I
know that the United States has no affinity to international law, but there is a body
of international law which defines what constitutes legal activity in the framework
of the Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) and what constitutes illegal activity. And Iran
has been within its legal bounds.

RAY SUAREZ: Is there a legitimate concern on the part of the United Nations that a
member state that has a head of government who has called for the wiping off the face
of the Earth of another member state, that it should be worried about their having a
nuclear program?

H. E. AMBASSADOR ZARIF: Well, let's separate the two issues. First of all, as I have
repeatedly pointed out, the Iranian nuclear program is a development program, is an
energy program. It has nothing to do with security; it is a legal program.

If you want to deal with the other issue, we have never threatened to use force
against any other country. Our history, in the past 250 years, we have not attacked
any other country.

We have been the subject of invasion; we have been the subject of aggression; we have
been the subject of use of chemical weapons. But we have defended ourselves, but we
never resorted to use of chemical weapons, even in retaliation. So our record is very
clear.

On the other hand, unfortunately, Israel has a record of aggression against its
neighbors, has a known nuclear stockpile, is not a member of any international
instrument.

The question that needs to be asked is whether Israel and the United States are
prepared to make the same statement that Iran has repeatedly made, and that is: We
have not and will not attack or threaten to attack another country.

I wonder whether this statement can be made either by President Bush or any Israeli
official.

RAY SUAREZ: Can you imagine a circumstance where you could make that kind of
representation to the American government itself? Is it time for the United States to
meet directly with Iran over the nuclear debate?

H. E. AMBASSADOR ZARIF: Well, the mechanics are not important. It is the political
will of the United States whether it seeks a resolution, whether it seeks to deal
with realities based on mutual respect, and to try to resolve outstanding issues and
grievances between the two countries.

If the United States reaches that understanding and is prepared to do that, then Iran
will be a willing partner.

RAY SUAREZ: Because recently there was supposed to be meetings over the future of
Iraq, and those didn't take place. Would there be more to talk about, a more fruitful
possibility in discussions about nuclear policy?

H. E. AMBASSADOR ZARIF: Well, Iran responded positively to a request that was made
initially by the United States and then repeated by Iraqi officials that Iran should
participate in bilateral dialogue with the United States on how to help the Iraqi
situation, on how to help the Iraqi people and government in stabilizing the country,
which is, I assume, in the interest of the United States, and certainly in the
interest of Iran, which is a country in the region did not come thousands of miles
away from its shores in order to invade another country.

But, unfortunately, since Iran showed its readiness to engage in that dialogue, the
attitude shown by the United States has been less than serious and, in fact, has made
it very difficult for those talks to take off the ground.

RAY SUAREZ: Ambassador Javad Zarif, Mr. Ambassador, thanks for joining us.

H. E. AMBASSADOR ZARIF: It was good to be with you.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/middle_east/jan-june06/zarif_4-28.html


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