Sean McCormack, US Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs, Talks to Kayhan (London)

Nazenin Ansari, Kayhan (London): Hat tip to Iran va Jahan

Q1. On Monday 6th February Iranian officials sent a letter to the United Nations nuclear agency IAEA requesting that it remove by mid-month any seals and surveillance systems on Iranian facilities still being monitored by international inspectors. The letter also said Tehran would end all voluntary compliance with the U.N. group. This is despite the international community taking the most decisive action for several years in respect of the nuclear program of Iran. The United States has reiterated its commitment to proactive diplomacy whilst not taking the use of force off the table. The regime in Tehran fully knows the extent of the bite of the consequences of its intransigence but is not willing to give up. What other conceivable threats or incentives are there that Iran already doesn’t know about that could make them change course?

What we hope is that the fact of finding themselves before the United Nations Security Council, a place where they don’t want to find themselves, a place they have been trying to avoid for quite some time, will change their decision making process in terms of cost and benefit of pursuing the course they have decided to pursue up to this point. So our hope is that this phase of diplomacy will give them some time in the next several weeks to reflect upon this fact that they have now isolated the Iranian people from the rest of the world.

They have isolated the Iranian people needlessly because the international community has put before the Iranian regime what are very attractive offers that if they were to have further discussions it could possible address the desires of the Iranian government and the Iranian people for peaceful nuclear energy to produce electricity, and at the same time give the international community objective guarantees that the Iranian regime is not going to try develop nuclear weapons. That is the obligation that they signed up to under Non-Proliferation Treaty. Now unfortunately the Iranian regime has not lived up to their end of the bargain. They have used the cover of a peaceful nuclear program to try and obtain a nuclear weapon.

One thing I want to point out is that I am not sure that the Iranian regime is being completely truthful with the Iranian people. I am not sure whether they have made clear that the dispute is not whether or not Iran can have peaceful nuclear energy, we have acknowledged their right to peaceful nuclear energy. The problem is that the Iranian regime, a small group of people that actually control the levers of power of Iran have decided that Iran is going to pursue a nuclear weapon. That is what the international community has objected to, not Iran's right to have peaceful nuclear energy but the fact that they are not abiding by their international obligations and they are in fact trying to do something other than what they say they are trying to do and that is to pursue a nuclear weapon. READ MORE

Q2. Do you see that this window of opportunity that currently exists for the diplomatic resolution of the dispute with Iran be extended beyond the normal time frame that it takes for the matter to be deliberated in the United Nations Security Council?

Well what I would expect is that this diplomatic phase proceed in a step by step fashion. Right now where we find ourselves is that the Iranian regime is being referred to the Security Council, now the Security Council has agreed that they are not going to take any action until at least March 6th. That is the date that the IAEA Board of Governors will hear a full report from Mohammad El-Baradei, the Director General of IAEA concerning Iran's cooperation with the IAEA or lack thereof and what the IAEA has found concerning Iran's attempts to pursue nuclear weapons. So there is a window here in this phase of diplomacy where the Iranian government can consider what pathway it wants to follow. Does it want to pursue the pathway of understanding and dialogue or does it want to pursue pathway of isolation. They are currently in the pathway to isolation. The rest of the world does not want that. They want to have the benefit of the Iranian people's great culture and history and poetry and music and sports. But right now what is happening is that Iranian regime is more and more isolating the Iranian people from the rest of the world and vice versa.

Q3. With the election of Hamas there is an Islamic Republic installed next to Israel. Are you not concerned that bringing democracy to the Greater Middle East and withdrawing your troops from Iraq, while Iran is being ruled by a government that is spending massive amounts of money, providing organizational, logistical support, sharing experience to have theocrats such as Hamas, the Badr army in Iraq and the Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Hamas in Palestine win elections would be an enormous boost for the regime in Tehran and propel it to duplicate its policies in other areas of the Middle East and pull the rug from under President Bush’s goal of a democratic Greater Middle East?

Well ultimately I would come at the question a little bit differently. We believe that ultimately the growth of a democratic Iraq on one side of Iran and the growth of a democratic Afghanistan on the other side of Iran will have more effect on the behavior of Iran than vice versa than Iran on either side of its two neighbors. Because we believe that fundamentally every person yearns for basic freedom, freedom of expression freedom of religion, freedom to vote in elections for people in elections that will govern and to demand accountability from their government in how they are ruled. And if the people are not satisfied with the way their government is working, they can vote them out and ultimately that is what we believe every person in the region yearns for.

Now the history of the Middle East and the region has been one that over the past 60 years of oppression. People had two choices, they could either work within a system of autocratic regimes or they could turn to violence and extremism. They didn't have a middle pathway. What we are trying to promote is a middle pathway that pathway where a political class can develop where people can differ in their views but can express those differences in a peaceful without fear of secret police knocking on the door or without fear of violent reaction. That is the vision of the Middle East that President Bush has and one people of the Middle East want. Now during this time, it is a time of great change in the region, you are going to see things like Hamas being elected that is what part of democracy is all about but we firmly believe that the Palestinian people voted not only for good governance and anti corruption but the also voted for peace when they voted for President Mahmoud Abbas. And so Hamas now must face a choice in how to fulfill the dual aspiration of the Palestinian people not only for a better way of life but also for a peaceful coexistence with the state of Israel. So it is Hamas that faces the choice.

And as for Iran's behavior throughout the region, it is a trouble not only for the United States but also for all of Iran's neighbors. Iran's support for terrorist groups is something that the world condemns and we are going to continue to work with our friends around the world and also in the region to try to convince Iran to cease its support for terrorism and where and when it won't do that to try to prevent Iran from spreading the creative violent and hatred throughout the region.

Q4. Apart from Presidential statements or talk for funding externally based NGOs what other practical measures can the US administration take to assist the Iranian people in their quest for liberation from theocracy and a genuine participatory democracy?

Well, we as well as other countries around the world, the Europeans, will continue to support rhetorically as well as with funding those people interested in the building of a true civil society those people interested in a developing a political space where they can have freedom of expression for men and women and all members of society regardless of religion or gender. But ultimately as any country throughout the region is going to be for the people of the particular country to decide what kind of course they want their country to follow, what kind of future they want for themselves and their children and their grand children. So we will continue to stand with the Iranian people as they aspire to greater freedom as they aspire to true democracy. As you pointed out, we will continue to provide funding to those NGOs that are interested in promoting those goals.

Q5. Is a meeting like the Bonn conference on Afghanistan and the London conference for Iraq envisioned for bringing the Iranian opposition together?
I don't know of any plans at this point for anything like that.

Q6. Is there anything you would like to add?
I would like to speak to the Iranian people...what they need to understand is that the world has a great appreciation for the Iranian culture for Iran's history. The Iranian people are a great people and what the Iranian people need to understand is that the action in terms of the international community with respect to Iran's nuclear program is not directed against the Iranian people they are directed at the behavior of the regime that the Iranian people don't deserve and the Iranian people also have to understand that the Iranian regime is not telling them all of what is going on. The world is not trying to prevent Iran from having peaceful nuclear energy, in fact, the world has made attempts to provide a proposal that would allow Iran to have peaceful nuclear energy but also provide assurances that the Iranian regime, those small number of people who control power in Iran won't try to use the rights under NPT to develop peaceful nuclear energy to in fact to develop the nuclear bomb.

This is an encouraging interview.