Iran Officials Counter With Proposal for Worldwide System to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons

Iran Won't Discuss Halting Uranium Enrichment Program

By Thomas Erdbrink
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, September 10, 2009; 1:39 PM

TEHRAN, Sept. 10 -- Iran is not prepared to discuss halting its uranium enrichment program in response to Western demands but is proposing instead a worldwide control system aimed at eliminating nuclear weapons, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's top political aide said in an interview Thursday.

In the proposal, which was handed to the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany on Wednesday, Iran also offers cooperation in solving problems in Afghanistan and fighting terrorism, as well as collaboration on oil and gas projects, said Mojtaba Samareh Hashemi. A longtime confidant of Ahmadinejad, Samareh Hashemi is considered the president's closest aide and is reportedly under consideration for appointment as first vice president, a key post in Ahmadinejad's new government.

As described by Samareh Hashemi, Iran's proposal is similar to a call by President Obama in April to eliminate the world's nuclear weapons. At the upcoming United Nations General Assembly meeting later this month, Obama is scheduled to chair a special U.N. session aimed at seeking broad consensus on preventing the spread of nuclear weapons rather than on targeting individual nations such as Iran and North Korea. Ahmadinejad is also scheduled to attend the U.N. meeting and has said he is ready to debate Obama in front of the world media.

On Wednesday, Iran gave its package of proposals to representatives of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council -- the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China -- and Germany. The group, known as the P5-plus-one, has sought unsuccessfully since 2006 to negotiate with Iran on its nuclear program. The group wants Iran to abandon its program to enrich uranium, which Iran insists it needs to ensure an independent source of fuel for nuclear power plants. Highly enriched uranium can also be used in nuclear weapons, however, leading the United States and other Western nations to suspect that Iran secretly plans to divert the material to a weapons program.

The United States said on Wednesday it would consider the Iranian initiative very carefully. Russia said it hopes negotiations with Iran will resume in the near future. France said on Thursday that it is studying the proposal along with the other P5-plus-one members, the French news agency AFP reported.

In the interview, Samareh Hashemi called Washington's Iran policy a "paradox" and said it was influenced by "Zionists." He refused to confirm or deny that the Obama administration has sent two secret letters to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, saying only that he would "respond later" to questions about the matter.

The top presidential aide said the United States has not submitted any request to open a consular office or interests section in Tehran, an idea that was floated in Washington last year. "If such a request comes, we will study it positively," he said.

He said Iran has given the United States "practical proposals" in the past to improve relations, including a request for direct airline flights between Tehran and New York. "But the Americans gave no response," he said.

Samareh Hashemi also called on the United States to apologize for "interfering in Iran's election and other instances of meddling," attacked America's two-party political system and denounced "liberal democracy" in Western nations. "Both the internal and external signs of this Western liberal democracy show that it's approaching defeat and collapse," he said.

Ahmadinejad began a second presidential term last month after his government effectively crushed opposition protests over his disputed reelection in June. He has accused the West of orchestrating the protests.

Addressing the nuclear issue, Samareh Hashemi strongly rejected a senior U.S. diplomat's accusation Wednesday that Iran "is now either very near or in possession" of enough low-enriched uranium to produce one nuclear weapon. The diplomat, Glyn Davies, Washington's chief envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, said in a speech, "We have serious concerns that Iran is deliberately attempting, at a minimum, to preserve a nuclear weapons option." He charged that Iran's continuing enrichment activity, in defiance of three U.N. Security Council resolutions, "moves Iran closer to a dangerous and destabilizing possible breakout capacity."

Samareh Hashemi charged in reply that the United States is allowing its position on the issue to be dictated by Israel. "This is the Israelis speaking; it's better that the Americans give their own opinion," he said.