TEHRAN, 25 February 2005 — Iran said yesterday it opposed a US role in nuclear talks alongside the European Union, just two days after a government-linked think-tank floated the idea of talking to an administration that still refuses to rule out military action.
“The Islamic republic sees no reason for US participation in the discussions between Iran and Europe,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told the official IRNA news agency.
“If the Americans joined the talks, the best that could happen is that they would bring nothing to the negotiations and in the worst case scenario they would sabotage everything.
“We hope that the Europeans will continue to act independently,” he said, charging that it was Washington’s aim to convince them that they could not hope to deal alone with Iran on an issue as sensitive as nuclear technology.
On Tuesday, the deputy director of a Foreign Ministry-affiliated think-tank had suggested that, despite the absence of diplomatic relations, Tehran was ready to talk with Washington in a bid to disprove US-led accusations that its nuclear program was a cover for efforts to develop the bomb.
“On the specific topic of the nuclear program, Iran is ready to enter into negotiations with the US to prove the civilian nature of the nuclear program,” Mahmud Vaezi told IRNA.
Britain, France and Germany are leading diplomatic efforts to persuade Iran to permanently abandon its uranium enrichment program in return for a package of political and economic benefits.
Iran has agreed to suspend enrichment efforts for the duration of the talks but Tehran has repeatedly said that it reserves its right under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to resume the program.
“In order to run our nuclear reactors efficiently, the Islamic Republic of Iran needs to master that field,” supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei reiterated late Wednesday.
He accused the West of practicing double standards through its insistence on stronger safeguards for governments whose policies it opposed.
“Holding dialogue does not mean yielding to the viewpoints of the other side blindfolded and, if the Westerners insist that no nation but themselves is entitled to master the nuclear sciences, that is an irrational and arrogant demand, seriously denounced by us,” Khamenei told IRNA.
“The Western countries justify their opposition to other countries’ access to nuclear power, arguing that cannot trust those countries’ words about refraining from manufacturing nuclear weapons, but we say to them that we do not trust them either.”
Iran and the United States have had no diplomatic relations since soon after the 1979 revolution. Tehran derides Washington as the “great Satan”, while US President George W. Bush has said that the Islamic regime is part of an “axis of evil”.
After talks with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder Wednesday, Bush said: “All options are on the table” to deal with Iran’s nuclear program but added: “Iran is not Iraq.”
