TEHRAN, 7 September 2004 — The spokesman for Iran’s reformist Cabinet said yesterday the Islamic republic was willing to show greater transparency over its nuclear program in order to ease suspicions of bomb-making.
“We are ready to accept all kinds of surveillance to remove the fears of the international community,” said Abodollah Ramazanzadeh, asserting Iran’s commitment to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and its additional protocol.
Iran is a signatory to the NPT and in December 2003 signed the additional protocol, which allows tougher inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency. The Iranian Parliament, now controlled by conservatives, has yet to ratify that protocol.
Ramazanzadeh also reiterated Iran’s refusal to abandon its work on the nuclear fuel cycle, which although permitted under the NPT is feared as providing Iran with a nuclear weapons option later on. “We have accepted to voluntarily suspend uranium enrichment, but it is illogical to ask us to renounce enrichment,” he said at his weekly press conference.
Officials have announced that Iran’s top national security official was traveling to Europe yesterday to forestall US efforts to haul the Islamic republic before the UN Security Council over its nuclear program.
The Foreign Ministry said Hassan Rowhani would travel to the Netherlands — current holder of the EU presidency — for a series of high-level talks ahead of a fresh IAEA meeting on Sept. 13.
Rowhani’s mission will follow a weekend meeting in the Netherlands of European leaders, who appeared to be torn between pursuing efforts to engage Iran and calls for a harder line over Tehran’s nuclear aims. Iran insists its nuclear program is merely aimed at generating atomic energy.
Meanwhile, the research center of the Iranian Parliament rejected a proposed bill which would require United States nationals entering the country to be fingerprinted, the Tehran daily Mardomsalari reported yesterday.
The center argued that such a move would run against Tehran’s policy to pursue greater interaction with other states and prevent tensions at international level. The country should encourage international relations which were based on the elements of dignity, wisdom and mutual interest, the center added.
It remains unclear, however, to what degree the conservative- dominated Parliament in Tehran will follow the report by the research center. The center’s task is to evaluate bills of strategic importance but it holds no veto powers over the legislative process.
The bill is seen as a response to the US which had tightened immigration requirements for several nationalities including Iran following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The changes involve fingerprinting immigrants and asking them to fill out detailed application forms on arrival.
Currently, however, the fingerprinting process is carried out only at US embassies and consulates once the visa-application is approved. Iran’s Foreign Ministry repeatedly condemned Washington’s new policy as discriminatory, unethical and contrary to the norms of civil society.
However, some of Iran’s reformists close to President Mohammad Khatami had objected a tit for tat response to Washington and argued if the US made such a mistake, there was no need for Iran to do the same.
Tehran and Washington have had no diplomatic ties for more than 25 years and tensions between the two countries have increased further since the US presidency of George W. Bush and the war on Iraq military.
