TEHRAN, 15 July 2004 — Iran’s President Mohammad Khatami yesterday blamed Britain, France and Germany for a downturn in their nuclear talks, but pledged that negotiations would nevertheless continue.
“In Brussels in February, there was an accord with the Europeans that we would suspend the assembly of centrifuges and in return they would close our dossier at the IAEA,” Khatami told reporters after a Cabinet meeting. “Because they did not do this, we are not bound by the accord.”
According to the Iranian account of the February deal, the EU’s so-called “big three” promised to help remove Iran’s dossier from the top of the International Atomic Energy Agency agenda.
But instead the three co-sponsored a resolution at the UN nuclear watchdog that criticized Iran’s failure to fully comply with an IAEA probe into whether Iran is seeking merely atomic energy or nuclear weapons.
The European side, however, says they were explicit in spelling out to Iran that they would only support it at the IAEA if the body’s director, Mohamed El-Baradei, was satisfied with Iranian cooperation — which he was not.
Despite the spat and Iran’s announcement it would resume the assembly of centrifuges — used to enrich uranium in the most sensitive part of the fuel cycle — Khatami said Iran was still committed to a deal struck last October.
In that accord, Iran agreed to allow tougher IAEA inspections, make a full declaration of its activities and suspend enrichment itself. “We have suspended enrichment and have not resumed,” he said.
“We will negotiate with the Europeans and we think we can continue to negotiate with the Europeans.”
“All our activities are in the framework of civil and peaceful nuclear technology, and I deny we bought any nuclear material for military purposes,” he added.
Iran’s top national security body said Tuesday that the next round of talks with Britain, France and Germany on the nuclear issue would resume later this month.
The Supreme National Security Council, which is headed by nuclear negotiator Hassan Rowhani, made no reference to where the talks would be held or, more importantly, at what level and on what specific subjects.
Meanwhile, a top commander in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards has maintained that a group of eight British troops arrested last month entered Iranian territorial waters and accused them of doing so deliberately, a press report said yesterday.
“The GPS navigational devices that the three British boats had and which were seized registered the position of the British soldiers at the time of their arrest,” the hard-line Jomhuri Islami newspaper quoted the official as saying.
“And this signifies that the British soldiers entered Iranian territory as part of a pre-determined plan,” said the official, identified only as Revolutionary Guards naval commander Gen. Tangsiri. “All of this information is contained in the GPS devices which are in our possession.”
The comments come amid an ongoing dispute between London and Tehran surrounding the circumstances of the June 21 arrest of the six Royal Marines and two sailors along the Shatt Al-Arab waterway, which demarcates the border between Iran and British-occupied southern Iraq.
Iran says it only arrested the unit after they strayed into Iranian waters, and cites the controversial televised confessions and apologies made by the team while they were in detention for three days.
But after debriefing the troops, Britain said they had been “forcibly escorted” over the maritime border by the Revolutionary Guards, and has demanded Iran also return their boats and equipment.
According to the newspaper report, “the insistence of the British to get the boats and navigational equipment back is explained by their wish that the information is not revealed.”
Khatami yesterday said the “three boats will be returned to the British”, but he did not give a date.
He also said the British claims were a “misunderstanding” on the part of London, and could be explained by what he said were “Britain’s internal problems”.
Iran also rejected yesterday a request by Canada to allow its observers to attend the trial of an Iranian intelligence agent charged with the “semi-intentional murder” of a Canadian journalist.
The death a year ago of Zahra Kazemi, 54, a Canadian photographer of Iranian descent, after she was arrested for taking pictures outside Tehran’s Evin prison has soured ties between Iran and Canada.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said the trial was an Iranian internal issue and the Islamic republic would handle the case “based on its own regulations”.
“The request for the presence of Canadian observers is contrary to all international principles and regulations and is unacceptable,” Asefi said on state television.
Canadian Foreign Minister Bill Graham was quoted on Tuesday as saying Ottawa could take measures ranging from economic and trade sanctions to suspension of high-level diplomatic ties if it was dissatisfied with Iran’s handling of the case.
“We do consider this extremely important ... There are no impediments to us taking actions,” The Toronto Star newspaper quoted Graham as saying in an interview.
