LAWMAKER INSIST THAT IRAN’S NUKE PROJECTS ARE CIVILIANS
BRUSSELS 18 June (IPS) "Iran is ready to join the additional protocols of the Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT), at the condition that it gets its "due share" of the nuclear know-how included in the treaty", assured Mr. Mohsen Mirdamadi, the Chairman of the influential Foreign and Security Affairs committee of the Majles, or the Iranian parliament.
Speaking at an almost packed Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament in Brussels that had invited him Mr. Mirdamadi, pressed by several Members of the European parliament (MEP) on the Iranian "secret" nuclear programs, invited the MEP to come to Iran and visit Iranian nuclear facilities in order to be sure that they are for "pacific use, including producing electricity power."We have signed the NPT and want to make sure our European partners and the world that we have nothing to hide", he told the MEP’s, adding with force that Iran’s atomic-based programs are for "purely civilian purposes", including producing much needed electricity".
This was the first time that a delegation from the Iranian Majles, comprising members of the different commissions like the human rights and budget and plan, had come to "Capital of Europe" on the invitation of the European Parliament.
He said all Iran’s nuclear facilities were open to the experts of the IAEA, who comes frequently to Iran, but did not say why Iran had not informed the international agency of the construction of its uranium enrichment sites or the import of near 2 million tons of enriched uranium from China?
On Monday, and as the EU’ foreign affairs ministers were issuing a statement from Luxembourg urging the Islamic Iran to join the NTP’s additional protocols and make its nuclear projects the "most visible possible", Tehran reacted angrily to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s criticism and concerns over Iran’s nuclear intentions, saying it would not sign the additional protocols.
To other questions concerning the situation in the neighbouring country of Iraq, Mr. Mirdamadi said Iran had no plans to impose its form of government on the Iraqis and advised the sooner the Americans leave Baghdad, "the better for them".
"What we want is an Iraqi government that is desired by the Iraqi people, a government that would have good relations with all its neighbours, including Iran", he said, noting that with its experience and close relations with different Iraqi factions, Tehran can play an important and positive role in the pacification and reconstruction of Iraq".
"It would be a great mistake for the Americans to stay in Iraq for a longtime, for, he pointed out, the Iraqis would not accept any foreign government imposed on them".
A majority of the 26 million Iraqi populations are Shi’ites and one of the most important political-religion organisation of the country, the Supreme Assembly of the Islamic Revolution of Iraq (SAIRI) was based in Tehran for the last 20 years.
On the question of Iranian support for terrorism, Mr. Mirdamadi said Iran does not consider as terrorist those who fight a foreign occupation force, but added that Iran would respect the decision of the Palestinians concerning their future relations with Israel, a country not Iran does not recognize, but also wants its total destruction, possibly by an atomic bomb, as suggested the former Iranian president Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani some time ago.
The European Union, engaged in a "critical dialogue" with the Islamic Republic, has tied the signing of an important Trade and Cooperation Agreement to questions of human rights, political freedoms and democracy in Iran, stopping support radical middle east and Palestinian forces opposed to the Peace Process.
"No country can impose by war its brand of civilisation on the others", Mr. Midamadi in a veiled reference to the American invasion of Iraq, adding that the war was not the best of the means to solve tensions and differences, as seen in the case of Afghanistan, where, except the ousting of the Taleban, all major problems, including unrest and cultivation of the poppy continue.
"The toppling of the Taleban extremists could have a positive impact for the region and the world, but what we see is the resurgence of terrorism, the desperation of the refugees who had returned and now are coming back to their countries of refuge, like Iran and the increase in the production of drugs", he said.
According to the lawmaker, many al-Qa’eda terrorist use the same routes and tactics as drug and other smuggles to enter Iran, but added that a number of the organisation’s members have been arrested, some of them extradited to countries like Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Kuwait and even some European nations.
However, he did not give any number of the al-Qa’eda people being detained.
Touching on differences with the United States, which had placed the Islamic Republic on a list of "evil states", the Iranian lawmaker said this is an old and "complicated" problem "exacerbated by radicals on both sides".
As he defended Iranian lamed President’s pet project of "dialogue among civilisations" and dialogue between Islam and Christianism, his European counterpart suggest that the dialogue be extended to Judaism as well in order to reach more concrete results.
On the question of the students-popular unrest that entered its second week, Mr. Mirdamadi sympathized with the protesters, saying conditions must be created in Iran allowing all Iranian the right of expressing freely its views and criticism against the regime.
Coming to the reform process promised by Mr. Khatami but not withheld, the lawmaker explained that contrary to revolution, evolution, or reform, is a very slow motion process. "The slower, the better reforms become absorbed by the society", he added.
He cited as respect for human rights, justice, people’s civil rights, legal rights and freedom of the press, answerability of the all the officials to the people and free elections as problems that are considered in the reform process, but admitted that most of them have faced stiff opposition from the powerful hard line faction of the Iranian leadership, led by the regime’s leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameneh’i, whom the protesters wants his departure from power and the resignation of the President. ENDS EU IRAN 18603