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How we duped the West, by Iran's nuclear negotiator
By Philip Sherwell in Washington
03/05/06 "The
Telegraph" -- -- The man who for two years led Iran's nuclear negotiations has laid
out in unprecedented detail how the regime took advantage of talks
with Britain, France and Germany to forge ahead with its secret
atomic programme.
In a speech to a closed meeting of leading Islamic clerics and
academics, Hassan Rowhani, who headed talks with the so-called EU3
until last year, revealed how Teheran played for time and tried to
dupe the West after its secret nuclear programme was uncovered by
the Iranian opposition in 2002.
He boasted that while talks were taking place in Teheran, Iran was
able to complete the installation of equipment for conversion of
yellowcake - a key stage in the nuclear fuel process - at its
Isfahan plant but at the same time convince European diplomats that
nothing was afoot.
"From the outset, the Americans kept telling the Europeans, 'The
Iranians are lying and deceiving you and they have not told you
everything.' The Europeans used to respond, 'We trust them'," he
said.
Revelation of Mr Rowhani's remarks comes at an awkward moment for
the Iranian government, ahead of a meeting tomorrow of the United
Nations' atomic watchdog, which must make a fresh assessment of
Iran's banned nuclear operations.
The judgment of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is the
final step before Iran's case is passed to the UN Security Council,
where sanctions may be considered.
In his address to the Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution, Mr
Rowhani appears to have been seeking to rebut criticism from
hardliners that he gave too much ground in talks with the European
troika. The contents of the speech were published in a regime
journal that circulates among the ruling elite.
He told his audience: "When we were negotiating with the Europeans
in Teheran we were still installing some of the equipment at the
Isfahan site. There was plenty of work to be done to complete the
site and finish the work there. In reality, by creating a tame
situation, we could finish Isfahan."
America and its European allies believe that Iran is clandestinely
developing an atomic bomb but Teheran insists it is merely seeking
nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. Iran's negotiating team
engaged in a last-ditch attempt last week to head off Security
Council involvement. In January the regime removed IAEA seals on
sensitive nuclear equipment and last month it resumed banned uranium
enrichment.
Iran is trying to win support from Russia, which opposes any UN
sanctions, having unsuccessfully tried to persuade European leaders
to give them more time. Against this backdrop, Mr Rowhani's
surprisingly candid comments on Iran's record of obfuscation and
delay are illuminating.
He described the regime's quandary in September 2003 when the IAEA
had demanded a "complete picture" of its nuclear activities. "The
dilemma was if we offered a complete picture, the picture itself
could lead us to the UN Security Council," he said. "And not
providing a complete picture would also be a violation of the
resolution and we could have been referred to the Security Council
for not implementing the resolution."
Mr Rowhani disclosed that on at least two occasions the IAEA
obtained information on secret nuclear-related experiments from
academic papers published by scientists involved in the work.
The Iranians' biggest setback came when Libya secretly negotiated
with America and Britain to close down its nuclear operations. Mr
Rowhani said that Iran had bought much of its nuclear-related
equipment from "the same dealer" - a reference to the network of A Q
Khan, the rogue Pakistani atomic scientist. From information
supplied by Libya, it became clear that Iran had bought P2 advanced
centrifuges.
In a separate development, the opposition National Council of
Resistance of Iran (NCRI) has obtained a copy of a confidential
parliamentary report making clear that Iranian MPs were also kept in
the dark on the nuclear programme, which was funded secretly,
outside the normal budgetary process.
Mohammad Mohaddessin, the NCRI's foreign affairs chief, told the
Sunday Telegraph: "Rowhani's remarks show that the mullahs wanted to
deceive the international community from the onset of negotiations
with EU3 - and that the mullahs were fully aware that if they were
transparent, the regime's nuclear file would be referred to the UN
immediately."
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