Arash Aramesh

Iran’s conservative media reacted unfavorably to calls from the United States for a new UN Security Council resolution against Iran. According to pro-government sources in Tehran, the West’s reaction to the uranium-exchange deal reached between Iran, Turkey, and Brazil was another sign that the West, especially the US, could never be satisfied and will always oppose Iran’s nuclear program.

According to Alef, a conservative political website, Ali Motahhari, a conservative member of the parliament, said that, “The farther we retreat, the deeper they advance,” suggesting that Iran’s acceptance of the uranium exchange deal would only embolden the West’s ambitions to ask for more from Iran in return for less and less.

Regarding the possibility of a new UN Security Council resolutions calling for tougher sanctions on Iran, Motahhari said, “The West wanted our uranium out of Iran and that is going to happen now,” and added, “accepting to send out our nuclear material was backing down [from our previous position] and that made the West more aggressive. The West will not cooperate with us and in their eyes, this was a sign of weakness on Iran’s part and they think they can now intensify pressure on us.”

Iran’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Manouchehr Mottaki, however, held a different view. According to Fars news, a pro-government site with close ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Mottaki insisted that the nuclear declaration made in Tehran has “left no chance for the passage of a UN [Security Council] resolution against Iran.”

Mottaki, who was speaking to al-Alam , Iran’s Arabic speaking television network, said, “Foreign ministers of Turkey and Brazil spoke to me on the phone and reported on their efforts and their negotiations.” He said his Turkish and Brazilian counterparts believed there was no chance for a new anti-Iran UN Security Council resolution to be passed.

Mottaki asserted, “We do not take their aggravations in New York seriously because countries that seek to pass a resolution are in the minority.”

Ali Larijani, Iran’s speaker of parliament, also claimed that President Barack Obama’s actions have shown that he is as deceitful as his predecessors. He asserted, “Positions taken by the other side [US and the West] proved that they will not behave honestly even regarding fuel exchange.”

According to Mehr, a semi-official news agency in Iran, Larijani said, “Some countries believed that Iran was inflexible about nuclear technology but the declaration that was signed here in Tehran with Turkey and Brazil and the reaction of world powers to it proved that Iran was not hardheaded and was only after its rights.”

Larijani said the U.S. reaction to the deal reached by the trio in Tehran was even worse that the previous administration and asserted, “I do not think that even former US officials would have taken the position that the Obama administration took regarding the declaration in Tehran.”

While it has been criticized by many conservatives inside Iran, the Iranian government declared the uranium exchange deal a great diplomatic victory and has claimed that any new US push for further sanctions against Iran would be unjustified and will be doomed to fail.