“Iran: restoring trust”

All governments agree that it’s necessary to put an end to the proliferation of nuclear weapons. To respect the Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is an obligation. Two years ago, Iran recognized before the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that it was creating the infrastructure for the uranium enrichment. Today, it still works on the development of ballistic missiles for nuclear weapons. This is the reason why it is believed the Iranian nuclear program has no pacific purposes. We should have informed the UN Security Council about this two years ago; instead, we tried to find a solution to help Teheran prove that its program was a pacific one.
We asked Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment and reconversion while we discussed long-term acceptable agreements. In November 2004, during the signing of the Paris Agreement, Iran accepted this. If we succeeded, the Non Proliferation Treaty would be reinforced. If Iran were to continue its activities, the weakest regions of the world would be destabilized; the NPT and the purpose of turning the Middle East into a free-of-weapon-of-mass-destruction zone would be a chimera. Last month, however, Iran unilaterally restarted its uranium reconversion program in Isfahan.
Iran argues that it is only exercising its right to the peaceful development of the nuclear sector and presents the current dispute as a difference between the developed world and a less developed country. We don’t question Iran’s right to have a civil nuclear program, which is one of the points addressed by the negotiations, but the NPT stipulates duties and we don’t believe Iran’s nuclear ambitions are only peaceful. In fact, Iran has had a clandestine nuclear program for 20 years and it took long for Iran to admit it. Iran also said that it had no foreign assistance but it used Libya’s and North Korea’s same secret networks. According to Iran, the facilities in Natanz and Isfahan are aimed at providing nuclear fuel to civil plants, but there are none. The only one that is being built by agreement is fed by Russia. There are 31 countries in the world with nuclear power stations, but not all produce fuel.
Iran broke off negotiations and it didn’t even bother to analyze seriously our long-term agreement proposals. We wanted to resume talks, but president Mahmud Ahmadineyad’s speech at the UN showed no flexibility at all. If Iran does not change its position, the proliferation risks are too high. We hope all members of the international community remain united.