Arash Aramesh
Iran’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Manouchehr Mottaki said June 2 that “imposing new sanctions [against Iran] is confrontation.” Mottaki said the West had two options regarding Iran’s nuclear program, one of which is cooperation and the other is confrontation.
According to Fars news, a semi-official news agency with close ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Mottaki said Iran did not like the option of confrontation but this would only happen if other side decided to follow a path other than cooperation.
Mottaki, who is currently in Brussels, turned his criticism towards the US and said, “In the past, you made decisions, then gave ultimatums, and then your decisions were followed. Now, you make decisions, issue ultimatums, but no one follows them,” implying that the US position has become much weaker in recent years and that the US no longer has the influence it once had.
According to Fars, Mottaki said Iran was a committed member of the International Atomic Energy Agency and asserted, “There must be a balance between rights and commitments. They say they recognize the nuclear rights of Iran. In my meeting with members of the European parliament, I told them that this right is not in the skies,” implying that the European Union says one thing but does something else regarding the Iranian nuclear dossier.
Mottaki emphasized the IAEA’s responsibility to provide fuel for Tehran’s research reactor and said, “The IAEA is responsible to provide fuel for this reactor.” He added, “During negotiations we were told that if we left some of this uranium on deposit at a different country, then they would provide us with fuel. But when we reached an agreement with Brazil and Turkey on this issue, Obama criticized our declaration.”
Iran, Turkey, and Brazil reached an agreement on May 16 to send 1,200 kilograms of Iran’s low enriched uranium to Turkey in return for 120 kilos of 20 percent enriched fuel for Tehran’s reactor. This trilateral deal was perceived by many as a great step forward in solving the Iranian nuclear issue through peaceful means, but the US and the EU did not welcome the Tehran declaration and instead, played down its importance.
The administration of President Barack Obama is pursuing harsher UN sanctions against Iran while Democrats and Republican in Congress are set to vote on a strong sanctions bill against Iran in the coming weeks. The Congressional sanctions bill is expected to pass with an overwhelming majority.
Iran’s acceptance of the deal proposed by Turkey and Brazil provided the Islamic Republic with ammunition to fire back at Western criticism about Iran’s lack of cooperation with the IAEA. Meanwhile, the Iranian government has made it clear that any move to impose further sanctions on Iran would be a deal breaker and Iran will back out of the uranium exchange deal.
What is interesting is that the new IAEA report expressing concern over the installment of new equipment in Iran’s nuclear facilities for further enrichment was not mentioned in the Iranian media. To its domestic audience, the Iranian government seeks to portray the image of a cooperating government that stands up for the nuclear rights of its people while the entire world is trying to cheat Iranians out of their right. Iran’s government has told the Iranian people that it has not deviated from IAEA regulations at all and the West has tried to punish Iran for political and ideological reasons.