Iran’s Foreign Ministry: There is corroborative evidence that Iran pursuing N. weapon despite 14 surprise visits by the IAEA, NPT permits every state to enrich uranium

News number: 8711240667 17:28 | 2009-02-12 Foriegn Policy

Iran Calls on US to Drop “Carrot and Stick” Policy TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hassan Qashqavi called on the US to drop “carrot and stick” policy.

Qashqavi recommended the new US administration to abandon its “carrot and stick” policy and avoid threatening others, according to the report. “If by the sticks they (the US and its allies) mean the sanctions, then it should be noticed that those are useless,” he said, adding that “figures showed that the volumes of Iran’s trade have increased under difficult conditions.” Iran and the United States recently have both sent out signals to improve bilateral relations. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday that Iran was ready for “fair talks” with the United States. “The Iranian nation is ready to hold talks but talks in a fair atmosphere with mutual respect,” Ahmadinejad told a rally in Tehran’s Azadi (liberty) Square to mark the 30th anniversary of the victory of Iran’s Islamic Revolution. “The United States must give up threats and sanctions,” he said, adding that Iran has now become “a real and true superpower.” Meanwhile, new US President Barak Obama said on Monday that his administration is “looking for openings” to start face-to-face talks with Iran. There is a possibility of mutual respect between the United States and Iran, Obama told a press conference, the first of its kind since his inauguration on Jan. 20. Washington and its Western allies accuse Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program, while they have never presented any corroborative evidence to substantiate their allegations. Iran denies the charges and insists that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only. Tehran stresses that the country has always pursued a civilian path to provide power to the growing number of Iranian population, whose fossil fuel would eventually run dry. Despite the rules enshrined in the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) entitling every member state, including Iran, to the right of uranium enrichment, Tehran is now under three rounds of UN Security Council sanctions for turning down West’s illegitimate calls to give up its right of uranium enrichment. Tehran has dismissed West’s demands as politically tainted and illogical, stressing that sanctions and pressures merely consolidate Iranians’ national resolve to continue the path. Political observers believe that the United States has remained at loggerheads with Iran mainly over the independent and home-grown nature of Tehran’s nuclear technology, which gives the Islamic Republic the potential to turn into a world power and a role model for other third-world countries. Washington has laid much pressure on Iran to make it give up the most sensitive and advanced part of the technology, which is uranium enrichment, a process used for producing nuclear fuel for power plants. Washington’s push for additional UN penalties contradicts a recent report by 16 US intelligence bodies that endorsed the civilian nature of Iran’s programs. Following the US National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) and similar reports by the IAEA head – one in November and the other one in February – which praised Iran’s truthfulness about key aspects of its past nuclear activities and announced settlement of outstanding issues with Tehran, any effort to impose further sanctions on Iran seems to be completely irrational. The February report by the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, praised Iran’s cooperation in clearing up all of the past questions over its nuclear program, vindicating Iran’s nuclear program and leaving no justification for any new UN sanctions. The UN nuclear watchdog has so far carried out at least 14 surprise inspections of Iran’s nuclear sites so far, but found nothing to support West’s allegations. Also in another report to the 35-nation Board of Governors, IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei confirmed “the non-diversion” of nuclear material in Iran and added that the agency had found no “components of a nuclear weapon” or “related nuclear physics studies” in the country. The IAEA report confirmed that Iran has managed to enrich uranium-235 to a level “less than 5 percent”. Such a rate is consistent with the construction of a nuclear power plant. Nuclear arms production, meanwhile, requires an enrichment level of above 90 percent. The Vienna-based UN nuclear watchdog continues snap inspections of Iranian nuclear sites and has reported that all “declared nuclear material in Iran has been accounted for, and therefore such material is not diverted to prohibited activities.” ElBaradei recently said that Iran remains far from acquiring capabilities to develop nuclear weapons as it is still lacking the key components to produce an atomic weapon. “They do not have even the nuclear material, the raw unenriched uranium to develop one nuclear weapon if they decide to do so,” said the head of the UN nuclear watchdog agency. Many world nations have called the UN Security Council pressure against Iran unjustified, especially in the wake of recent IAEA reports, stressing that Tehran’s case should be normalized and returned to the UN nuclear watchdog due to the Islamic Republic’s increased cooperation with the agency.