Foreign Ministry Protests Disclosure of Russian Proposal

Sara Esfahani, Rooz Online:

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman told reporters off the record that, “The Russians were not supposed to announce their nuclear proposal in public, and we had agreed to pursue the details privately and hold unofficial talks on the subject. But the Russians broke their promise and announced the news to foreign news media.”

From what has been going on since then and also the tacit approval of the Russian proposal, it appears that Iranian officials had intended to accept the Russian proposal right from the beginning and end the nuclear issue quietly. But the revelations of the plan made its acceptance by the more radical elements of the government very difficult. These elements had repeatedly heard government officials talk of red lines regarding foregoing enrichment activities inside Iran. Observers believe that with the hardening of West’s attitude towards Iran, the biggest headache the government faces is to convince those who had been advocating that Iran not give in or retreat from its position of carrying out the full nuclear cycle activities inside Iran.