Arash Aramesh

The Islamic Republic of Iran’s decision to send 1,200 kilograms of its low enriched uranium to Turkey is neither final nor binding. Iranian officials have repeatedly said that trilateral talks with Turkey and Brazil only produced a “declaration” and not a binding “agreement.” The reason for Iran’s lack of interest to fully commit to a controversial nuclear swap, one that is viewed by many Iranians as the government backing down on its original position, is Tehran’s lack of trust of Western states.

Since the talks in Tehran May 18, Western powers in general, and the United States in particular, have not welcomed Iran’s new position regarding uranium exchange, thus causing many high-ranking Iranian officials to warn the West that Iran could change its mind anytime and before the shipment of uranium exchange has occurred.

Ali Larijani, speaker of parliament, said last week that Iran will not go ahead with the nuclear swap if the US continues its efforts to pass a UN Security Council resolution against Iran and/or pass a Congressional sanctions bill against the Islamic Republic.

Larijani’s younger brother Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani, who is Iran’s chief justice, said May 22 that “The declaration in Tehran is a litmus test for Western powers, especially the US.” Ayatollah Larijani asserted that the West’s reaction to the declaration would determine, “Whether the West and especially the Americans intend to pursue a productive interaction or are they making trouble for Iran.”

Last week, Mohammad-Reza Bahonar, the conservative deputy speaker of Iran’s parliament, also said that if the US continued with its push to implement further sanctions against Iran, the Islamic Republic will consider the trilateral agreement null and void.

In an interview with Fars news, a semi-official news agency with close ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Ali-Asghar Soltanieh, Iran’s representative at the International Atomic Energy Agency headquarters in Vienna, said, “It is now time for the US, Russia, France, and the IAEA to show good faith and pull together their political wills in order to create a path of mutual trust and cooperation to provide fuel for Tehran’s nuclear reactor.”

According to Fars, Soltanieh said he believed conditions for diplomacy were ripe, and he expects that countries involved in this matter to take advantage of this historic opportunity.

Despite months of insistence from Tehran that any nuclear fuel swap should take place on Iranian soil, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad agreed last week to send a significant portion of Iran’s low enriched uranium to Turkey in return for enriched nuclear fuel for Tehran’s reactor. Such a deal must have been pre-approved by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. This became evident when during Tehran’s Friday prayer on May 21, when Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, the secretary of the Guardian Council, praised Ahmadinejad’s efforts regarding Iran’s nuclear program.

But the establishment’s approval of the deal should not be interpreted by the West as Iran’s unconditional commitment to the uranium swap deal. A number of influential Iranians, such as conservative deputy parliamentarian Ahmad Tavakkoli, opposed the deal.

Those in favor of the deal have also expressed their concerns about the West’s reaction. Many conservatives ask why they should risk so much political capital to show good faith to the West when the US is still pursuing strong sanctions against Iran? Despite Iran’s poor track record and its irresponsible behavior in the past, the trilateral declaration last week has met one of West’s crucial demands — uranium swap outside Iran and under the IAEA’s close supervision. It is now time to take advantage of this window of opportunity before someone in Tehran decides that crisis rather than a peaceful solution to the nuclear dossier would better serve the interests of hardliners.