Iran's hardliners claim victory after "EU climb-down"

Iran Focus: a pro-MEK website

The following is the translation of the editorial in Wednesday’s edition of the semi-official daily Kayhan, which reflects the views of the ruling ultra-Islamist faction led by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei:

An opportunity to spoil opportunities!

In the final of hours of yesterday afternoon, the French news agency [Agence France Presse] quoting Western diplomats reported the announcement of the three European nations’ [Britain, France, and Germany] readiness to resume their suspended nuclear talks with Iran. According to this report, the EU-3 suggested December 6, 2005 as the starting date.

An hour later, the Reuters news agency reported the same thing, highlighting two other points and quoting Western diplomats as saying, “We are considering a meeting in December in Vienna. The Iranians would have to say they want to meet and talk about restarting talks or not”, and, “Europe would be willing to meet even if Tehran did not reinstate a suspension of uranium processing activities at its Isfahan plant”.

Several critical points must be underscored regarding the European offer to resume suspended negotiations with Iran. READ MORE

1 – The date for the session of the Board of Governors [of the International Atomic Energy Agency] is November 24, 2005. With great fanfare, the United States and Europe had threatened since some time ago that if Iran ignored the provisions of the September resolution – the most recent resolution adopted by the Board of Governors – they would send Iran’s nuclear file to the United Nations Security Council at the November session. While Iran has continued to refuse to adhere to the September resolution, the suggestion of December 6 – 12 days after the November session – as the date of conducting negotiations, shows that as we had predicted the previous threats by America and its allies about referring our country’s nuclear file to the United Nations Security Council were empty threats. This is the case since America and its allies insisted on referring the file at the November session. Now, however, December 6 – 12 days after the November session – has been suggested as the date to start negotiations.

As we previously stressed, from all indications, the referral of Iran’s file to the Security Council was so dangerous and costly for America and Europe that it would have been tantamount to stupidity and idiocy. It was predicted that Europe was benefiting from the threat of referring the file and that if our country’s nuclear officials did not pay attention to these threats nor make any concessions, the adversary would be forced to retreat. Fortunately, the honourable officials did the right thing.

It is worthy to note that when suspended activities at Isfahan’s Uranium Conversion Facility were recommenced, certain nuclear officials considered this move to mean the referral of Iran’s file to the Security Council. Today, we not only witness that this analysis was unfounded but can say with certainty that achievements only come about with firmness and the refusal to give in to pressures.

2 – But also, if one reads the news that AFP and Reuters reported, there exists a cunning, albeit small, point which, if ignored by the honourable officials of our country’s nuclear file, could be damaging. Reuters wrote that the Europeans would await Iran’s answer on whether it wants to negotiate on resuming the talks or not.

As such, Europeans have suggested to negotiate about resuming the suspended talks. In other words, they have offered to sit down with Iran to negotiate about negotiations! This is while Iran had expressed its readiness to resume suspended negotiations and had reiterated that the subject of the negotiations must be resuming uranium enrichment and other related activities in the nuclear fuel cycle. Therefore, although the suggestion to negotiate about resuming negotiations, which has been stated in the recent offer by Europe, in and of itself may seem to be a retreat; it is a new excuse to kill opportunities and pass the November session. Despite the huge propaganda by the U.S. and its allies to make the November session look dangerous for Iran, this session poses a greater threat to them. This is why the U.S. and its allies are trying to pretend as though the November session is a normal session. It must be noted that the adversary has on the one hand made empty propaganda and threats and believes on the other hand that the referral of Iran’s file to the Security Council would be very costly and dangerous for itself. Therefore, if it takes back its previous threats while convening the session, it would have to accept a disgraceful defeat. Therefore, through its offer to negotiate about negotiations, it has attempted to first of all hold the November session without losing face and second of all to set the stage for the next round in the game and to kill opportunities.

3 – This question requires an answer – what do the Europeans mean by negotiation about negotiations? Do they mean to negotiate about the framework and the basis for the negotiations? If so, from the point of view of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the framework for the discussions is completely clear and defined. It is based on the points of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as well as the guidelines, protocols, and the charter of the IAEA and internationally recognised rules and regulations on rights of conventions (1969 Vienna Convention). It is obvious that these international conventions had clear reasons and are non-negotiable. However, until now, the Europeans have on many occasions stepped over these definite and unalterable provisions and openly breached their legal obligations.

The second possibility is that the European’s intention in negotiating to negotiate is a return to the [November 2004] Paris Agreement. It is worthy to note that earlier, in the course of discussions with the Europeans, they had implicitly suggested to remove suspension of activities at the [Isfahan] UCF from the Paris Agreement in order to resume talks in the framework of this agreement. In this case, the acceptance of the recent proposal by the EU means returning once again to the point in time prior to the agreement which it unilaterally voided by breaching its obligations. If Iran gives in to this proposal it will give the adversary an opportunity to kill our chances.

With full confidence that the U.S. and EU’s hand is empty, Iran must refrain from accepting the negotiations for negotiation and must only accept a continuation of negotiations on the condition that the subject of discussion is about how to start enrichment and a clear timeline to do so. Otherwise it is not unlikely that it Iran would end up playing this game on Europe's terms.