"ONE DAY OR ANOTHER, IRAN-AMERICAN TIES WOULD BE RE-ESTABLISHED": HASAN ROHANI
PARIS, 17 Jan. (IPS) "One day or another, relations would be resumed between Tehran and Washington, on that day, all our skill, I shall say our art, should be to choose the best moment", Hojjatoleslam Hasan Rohani, one of Iran’s emerging political figure said referring to the possibility of normalisation of ties with the United States.
"The question of Iran-US relations has become extremely complex and
complicated and it is extremely delicate for each side to take a decision….
However, in intervening in Afghanistan and in Iraq, the Americans have become
our neighbours. They have realised that they really need us, and also that
without Iran’s active participation; no crisis in the region could be solved.
They also have become aware of Iran’s resolve to fight al-Qa’eda, of
which we have arrested 300 members", he told the French centrist daily
"Le Figaro" on Saturday, at the end of a three-day official
visit to Paris.
Washington cut off all relations with the newly proclaimed Islamic Republic of Iran, --labelled by US President George W. Bush as a "rogue State" – in November 1979, after revolutionary students stormed the American embassy in Tehran and took 55 staff and diplomat as hostage for 444 days.
As the Secretary of the Supreme Council on National Security (SCNS), Mr. Rohani met last October the foreign affairs ministers of Britain, France and Germany in Tehran and agreed to sign the Additional Protocol to the Non Proliferation Treaty, before conducting, sometimes from behind the scene, difficult talks with the International Atomic Energy Agency on the Iranian controversial nuclear projects.
"The tragedy of Bam, -- the city in south eastern Iran that was hit by a strong earthquake last month, killing more than 40.000 people and destroying 80 per cent of the region, including the city’s historic citadel – is not enough to take out the kind of cork that prevents the resumption of ties. Though it might have made appear a ray of hope, yet what we need is a bulldozer to tear down the wall that separates out countries. But the problem is that each side counts on the other bulldozer to do the job", he told the newspaper.
The United States was among the first nations to send humanitarian and relief missions to Bam and the surprise decision of the Iranian authorities to accept American proposal for the assistance and allow American military planes to land in Kerman was immediately translated by analysts as a major shift in Tehran’s stated policy of "no to dialogue" with the "Great Satan", dictated by Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i, the leader of the theocratic regime.
When observed by the paper’s journalists, Claude Lorieux and Pierre Prier that the period of presidential elections in the US this year and in Iran next year is not a good time for taking such hard decision, Mr. Rohani quickly replied: "To the contrary, one can say that the end of a presidential mandate could be the best moment to take such a decision", without making clear which one of the elections he was referring to, the Iranian, scheduled for May 2005 the American in November 2004?
Asked if Tehran could use its influence over the Iraqi Shi’ites for moderation? Mr. Rohani described as "reasonable and acceptable" the action of the Shi’a community in Iraq. "We have excellent relations with Iraqi Kurds and the one with the Sunnis are not bad. But if Iraq could make away with divisions between the Shi’a, Kurds and Sunnis, I think this would be a very good thing", he added emphatically.
On the aim of his visit to France and the talks he held in Paris with President Jacques Chirac and the Foreign Affairs Minister Dominique de Villepin, Mr. Rohani, ----- who was given an almost State welcome --, Mr. Rohani emphatically said the talks were centring on the "continuation of dialogue over (Iran’s) nuclear issues", that Washington alleges are for producing atomic bomb, an accusation Tehran rejects vehemently, saying the projects are for civilian use, mainly developing electricity.
"We want to prove to the world that we are not seeking to procure nuclear weapons. We want to create confidence. In return we are asking the industrialised countries to provide us with nuclear technology for civilian uses, as stipulated in the NPT".
But he added: "If Israel's arsenal of weapons of mass destruction is not destroyed at some point, the countries of the region will be encouraged to start an arms race."
Touching on the disqualification of tens of reformist candidates, among them some of the most prominent lawmakers running for the upcoming Legislative elections due 20 February by the Council of the Guardians (CG), the body that is controlled by the conservatives and vets all candidates to all elections in the Islamic Republic, Mr. Rohan, who is close to the conservatives, said he believed a solution could be found now that Ayatollah Khameneh’i had urged the 12-members CG to review its decision.
"A law can be enforced with severity or moderation, as seen by the action of the policeman in Les Miserables -- Victor Hugo’s master piece -- Iran history today reads very much like Les Miderables. The Council of the Guardians seems to apply the law very strictly, which is unacceptable in the view of the critics", he commented, adding: "The outgoing members of the Majles, the Iranian parliament should be considered at the outset as having the right qualifications to stand".
Mr. Rohani described as "premature" speculations that project him as the next Iranian president. "Let’s wait for the results of the upcoming Legislative elections to have a clear image of the public’s tendencies. We shall see then which of the hard liners or the more moderates would be better represented at the Majles". ENDS ROHANI LE FIGARO 17104