First US-Iran Step On Nuclear Talks

            In the hint of a possible breakthrough, Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif held their first meeting on the sideline of talks between Iran and the world’s six major powers. They even shook hands—two days after their heads of state did not have a much-anticipated encounter at the United Nations. Both the U.S. and Iranian envoys signaled encouraging movement, including an effort to fast-track negotiations with the same of ending the crisis over Iran’s nuclear program within one year. Formal talks will resume on October 15 and 16. that will be

      After the September 26 talks in New York, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said he was surprised by the speed of agreement on the way forward.

      “We agreed to jump-start the process so that we could move forward with a view to agree, first, on the parameters of the end game, how we want to proceed Iran's nuclear program in a year's time, and also to think about steps, starting with a first step, that should be implemented in order to address the immediate concerns of two sides, and move towards finalizing it hopefully within a year's time,” Zarif told a gathering organized by the Council on Foreign Relations and the Asia Society for President Hassan Rouhani.

            Responding to Zarif’s announcement, President Rouhani said, “Well, you asked for the first step. They took it.”  Zarif’s comments followed the event for Rouhani. The transcript of the president’s remarks is below with statements by Zarif and Kerry.

 

            “We had a constructive meeting, and I think all of us were pleased that Foreign Minister Zarif came and made a presentation to us, which was very different in tone and very different in the vision that he held out with respect to possibilities of the future.

             “I have just met with him now on a side meeting, which we took a moment to explore a little further the possibilities of how to proceed based on what President Obama laid out in his speech to the General Assembly earlier this week. And so we’ve agreed to try to continue a process that we’ll try to make concrete, to find a way to answer the questions that people have about Iran’s nuclear program.

            “Needless to say, one meeting and a change in tone, which was welcome, doesn’t answer those questions yet, and there’s a lot of work to be done. So we will engage in that work, obviously, and we hope very, very much – all of us – that we can get concrete results that will answer the outstanding questions regarding the program. But I think all of us were pleased that the Foreign Minister came today, that he did put some possibilities on the table. Now it’s up to people to do the hard work of trying to fill out what those possibilities could do.”

 

            “The United States is not going to lift the sanctions until it is clear that a very verifiable, accountable, transparent process is in place, whereby we know exactly what Iran is going be doing with its program… Sure, it's possible [to cut a deal within three to six months]… It's possible to have a deal sooner than that depending on how forthcoming and clear Iran is prepared to be.”

            Sept. 26, 2013 in an interview with CBS

 

            “Good evening, Mr. President. I had a good meeting with P3-plus-three, or as it's known here, 5-plus-one, very good and substantive meeting. We agreed to jump-start the process so that we could move forward with a view to agree, first, on the parameters of the end game, how we want to proceed Iran's nuclear program in a year's time, and also to think about steps, starting with a first step, that should be implemented in order to address the immediate concerns of two sides, and move towards finalizing it hopefully within a year's time.

            “I thought I was too ambitious bordering naiveté, but I saw that some of my colleagues were even more ambitious and wanted to do it faster, so we could go ahead.

Second thing, Kerry was very positive in that meeting, repeating the views of President Obama on the need to move forward, and he committed to leading the process himself on the American side.

            “And then we had a short bilateral meeting on the sides, which is not abnormal in -- in these international settings. We always take people aside and have a chat. We had more than a chat. That continued the same logic that Secretary Kerry pointed to me, his readiness to lead the discussions to a mutually agreeable solution, and I stated President Rouhani's commitment to move the process forward.

            “We also touched upon a couple other issues, but very briefly. But that was the gist of our discussion. I'm optimistic. Now we have to match our words with action. And that's, I hope, not a challenge. I hope that would be an opportunity for us to build confidence and move forward, turning challenges into possibilities for a better understanding and movement forward.”

 

 

            “Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to conclude by briefly touching upon the Iranian peaceful nuclear energy program, which has been subject to enormous hype over the past several decades. You know that -- how many predictions regarding how close Iran was to acquire a nuclear bomb proved to be baseless? We can trace these predictions back to the early 1990s. Throughout this periods, alarmists kept trying to paint the face of Iran as a threatening one to its region and the whole world, a claim that has always turned out to be utterly false.

            “And we all know also who the chief agitator is and what purposes are to be served by hyping this issue. We know also that this claim fluctuates in proportion to the size of the international pressure to stop the settlement activity and end the occupation of Palestinian lands.

            “These false alarming bells are oblivious, among other things, to the fact that the U.S. national intelligence estimates maintained that Iran has not decided to build a nuclear bomb.

            “We are committed not to work towards developing and producing nuclear bomb. As enunciated in the fatwa issued by the leader of the Islamic revolution, we strongly believe that the development, production, stockpiling and use of nuclear weapons are contrary to the Islamic norms. I also should reiterate that we never contemplated the option of acquiring nuclear weapons. We believe that such weapons could undermine our national security interests. And as such, they have no place in Iran's security doctrine, and even the perception that Iran may pursue a nuclear weapons program is detrimental to our security and overall interests.

            “During my presidential campaign, I committed myself to do whatever in my power to fast-track a solution for the standoff over the nuclear energy program. To fulfill this commitment and benefit from the window of opportunity that the recent election opened up, my government is prepared to leave no stone unturned in seeking for a mutually acceptable solution. To this end, we are ready to work with 5-plus-one, its members, and others with a view to ensuring full transparency under international law surrounding our nuclear program.

            “The peaceful nuclear capability that we have achieved is bound to be exercised within a transparent internationally recognized framework, accessible to the IAEA under its safeguards mechanisms and international monitoring, as has been the case in the past several years. We believe that it is in this appropriate and lawful way that the international community can ensure the exclusively peaceful nature of the Iranian nuclear program.

            “In such a framework, we are also ready to work towards removing any ambiguity and answer any reasonable question about Iran's peaceful nuclear program.

            “Having done so, let me reiterate that we will never forgo our inherent right to benefit from peaceful nuclear technology, including nuclear enrichment, under any circumstances. The continuation of pressure, arms-twisting, intimidation, and extraterritorially imposed measures directed against the Iranian people and innocent civilians trying to prevent them from having access to a whole range of necessities, from technology to medicine, from science to foodstuff, could only poison the atmosphere and undermine the conditions necessary for making progress and weaken our resolve.”

            “We will seek effective and constructive understanding and interaction with the outside world, focus on mutual confidence-building with our neighbors and other regional and international actors, and try to orient our foreign policy towards economic development of our country.

To this end, we will work on easing and removing tensions in our foreign relations and strengthening our relationship with our traditional and new partners in all the regions.

            “While we will avoid confrontation and antagonism, at the same time, we will actively pursue our larger interests as we are living in an increasingly interconnected and interdependent world. We believe that challenges could only be addressed through interaction and active cooperation among states. Global challenges require collective responses. No country by itself and in an isolated manner would ever be able to effectively address the challenges it faces. Big powers are no exception to this rule, as they increasingly find it difficult to address unilaterally the specific challenges that they face, as well.”

            “Ladies and gentlemen, we are also considering the aspects of rebuilding and improving our bilateral and multilateral relations with the countries of Europe and North America, on the basis of mutual respect and equal footing. That would include working on easing off any tension, removing hurdles in the way, and comprehensively developing relations, including economic ties.

            “We can begin by avoiding any new tension in Iran-U.S. relationship and, at the same time, endeavor towards removing tensions that we inherited from the past, tensions that continue to mar the relations between our two countries. While we may not be able to forget the major source of mistrust and suspicion that haunted the minds of the Iranian people in their thinking about the U.S. government in the past 60 years, we need, however, to focus, rather, on the current situation and look forward to the future, trying to turn the turbulent past into a beacon lighting for the path ahead.

            “As leaders, we need to rise above petty politics and lead, rather than follow, the various interests and pressure groups in our respective countries. In our view, building on and cooperating about issues of interest and concern to both sides could also be another starting point, as it would be in the interest of easing off the ongoing tensions in our region, as well. In so doing, we need to counter those interest groups here in the U.S. and there in the region whose objective is to keep Iran as an issue that is a boiling one.

            “Perhaps to bring Iran and the United States closer, the initial steps may likely have to be taken by the people. They have to start it, very likely. If an environment is created where the -- you know, the exchanges are done easily, more easily Iranians can come here more easily and people from here can go to Iran more easily, then this will be actually create a public diplomacy venue that will also expand the overall diplomatic activities and the extra steps that we need to take.”

            “You know that one of my motives during the election campaign was to emphasize the need for citizenship rights and to build equal opportunities for men and women. And you know that, in Iran, women are quite remarkably advanced and have achieved such advancements in recent years, perhaps unprecedented compared to any other country that surrounds us and in our region, given the fast level of advancement in the recent number of years that occurred. Today more than half our university population constitutes women. They are present actively in our scientific and industrial levels, in our medical field, in our hospitals, in our offices, in the administrative sector, in the various industrial sectors, and the service sector. You'll see women active everywhere.

            “The goal of this government is to create social opportunities for men and women that are completely equal. Therefore, I have actually said to my cabinet members that at the level of deputy ministers, as well as director generals and senior managerial positions, or -- wherever there are qualified women, those qualified women should be used in order to make up for the gap from the past, because after all, we still need to build an inherent and expanding environment, to build that equal -- equality and equilibrium for women in the workforce.

            “So when it comes to the issue of the status of women, the government will remain committed to the vows it made and the pledges it made. I'd like to add that we don't like to have anyone or see anyone in prison. We like to have empty prisons. In the past several weeks, some good, positive measures were taken in this regard, and I hope they will continue.”

            “In the economic field, we have actually drafted plans, a series of plans. One is a short-term plan which is called 100-day plan. It's been sort of labeled as such. And the government has actually been able to pass 25 mini-plans (ph) within this category, entrusting various bodies of the government to take every step to basically operationalize the plan. In terms, it is a plan that basically aims to -- well, there is also -- you know, plans for providing more facilities in the customs area, in banking system, because some of our economic problems result from the interaction between the various sectors in the country.

            “So we're trying to smooth that and facilitate those interactions. We also have another plan that is underway, being planned currently for next year, based on a budget that will be presented to the Islamic Consultative Assembly, and then we have a long-term four-year plan, which our economic group is also working on currently.

            “One of our plans in principle is to build an environment that is more friendly to the private sector, that it basically triggers business, that eliminated the extra, whether it is the extras that are in the way that prevent the smooth facilitation (ph) of business, whether in forms of protocols or laws or whatnot, or administrative hurdles. And the effort is really to delegate what can be delegated to the private sector from the public sector, so that -- and also to create a function for the government to be -- assist the private sector.

            “One of the problems we currently have is the debt that the government has to the private sector, so we're trying to plan how the government can pay that debt to the private sector, especially to contractors who -- who have carried out their duties, but have not received funds from the government, that face many serious hurdles as a result.

            “So to sum up my response, I think that when it comes -- we're taking every step we can for revitalizing the economy and for generating employment for the youth. And we have two specific plans for these that we have been declared and we're in the process of operationalizing them, and then there will be a longer-term plan that we will announce in the next couple of months.”

            “Among the programs that the government has considered seriously is to ensure that people must have sufficient access to information, and that in the access to information, they will -- can benefit from the various ideas around globally, get a sense of what it is globally, and, of course, just as I also said in an interview, any country, when it comes to the virtual world, has some moral and ethical frame of reference that it tries to keep up and preserve. And in the same token, the Islamic Republic of Iran expects that its ethical framework, the frame of reference for approaching the virtual world, is preserved.”

            “I am profoundly disturbed over the spawning humanitarian tragedy in Syria and the enormous suffering that the Syrian people have incurred over the past two years and half. Representing a people who experienced the horror of chemical weapons, my government strongly condemned the use of chemical weapons in the ongoing conflict in Syria. I am also concerned about the breeding grounds created in parts of Syrian territory for extremist ideologies and rallying point for terrorists, which is reminiscent of the situation in another region adjacent to our eastern borders in the 1990s.

            “This is an issue of concern, not only to us, but also to many other countries, which requires cooperation and joint efforts aimed at finding a durable intra-Syrian political solution.

            “At the same time, we are pleased that diplomacy finally could have its way with regard to at least one aspect of -- of Syrian crisis and sober judgment prevailed over saber rattling. We need to build on the partial headway that was made and try to reach an understanding on the fact that Syria is now a place in dire need of coordinated regional and international efforts.

            “We are ready to contribute to peace and stability in Syria in the course of any serious negotiations among regional and extra-regional parties. Here, too, as in everywhere else, we need to avoid embroiling in a zero-sum game.”

            “We completely condemn the use of chemical weapons by whoever. Whoever has used it is condemnable. It is an inhumane act. It is unacceptable, and it is extremely dangerous for our region, because, after all, you know that we have been victims of chemical weapons ourselves. We know more than -- we know how dangerous these weapons are.

            “After years since our own war in the '80s, we have people who are suffering from their chem injuries as a result of the use of chemical weapons and the course of the war to this day in our hospitals. So we know how inhumane it is. And therefore, we believe that the Middle East region should be free of weapons of mass destruction, whether chemical, biological, or nuclear, completely eradicated these weapons should be from our region, therefore, that we must have a Middle East region free of nuclear weapons.

            “As you know, it has been a proposal of Iran from years back, and in fact today in the conference on disarmament at the General Assembly, a special convening on the discussion of the disarmament aspects of this issue, I did emphasize that the Middle East region should become a part -- a region that is one zone free of nuclear weapons.”

            “I think that I have responded in one or two interviews and in which I was asked about it, and I explained that we condemn the crimes by Nazis in the World War II, and regrettably those crimes were committed against many groups, many people. Many people were killed, including a group of Jewish people.

            “And we condemn their crimes in general. We condemn the murder and killing of innocent people always. It makes no difference to us, when that person is innocent and is killed, whether he or she was Jewish or Christian or Muslim. There's just no difference in our eyes. We condemn crimes as such.

            “But the argument here is that if the Nazis committed a crime, this does not mean that the price paid for it should be done by other people elsewhere. This is no and should not be -- serve as any justification to push out from their homes a group of people because of what Nazis did. Although that crime by the Nazis is definitely condemnable, oppressing people in another part is also condemnable, because people should be allowed to return to their homes and to their lands.”

 

            “Afghanistan, for next year, is something that we are concerned about in terms of its peace and stability for various reasons. One reason being the one you just referred to, that the international forces aim to leave Afghanistan, and another reason being that, unfortunately, American -- the U.S. forces intend to say in some basis in Afghanistan. And this could become an excuse for Taliban and other extremist groups to continue resorting to, you know, acts that -- actively insecurity (ph) of that country, because one aspect here that contributes to the activity of these groups is the presence of foreign forces in the region.

            “And at the same time, in principle, we also cannot find (inaudible) foreign forces in the region. We don't find them useful. We find them detrimental to regional security and peace. And then there's another issue of the negotiations -- the peace negotiations between the government and the Taliban. There's yet another issue, the elections that will happen in Afghanistan next year. We're concerned about this and in general concerned about the potential for instability in Afghanistan, based on the information we receive and about the movement of the -- some, you know, groups there that are against the government.

            “And one of the first steps that we've taken is to negotiate with the government of Afghanistan and with the governments of surrounding countries and in order to prevent, you know, the potential destabilization as far as we can.”

            “The principle of the illicit drugs that flow from Afghanistan is that it poses a serious threat to the entire region, we and the world. And we have been always cooperating with international organizations and regional organizations and the group of countries on this issue to curtail the -- to curtail it.

            “If a government wants to help, truly there are different ways of helping in this process. The first help comes from inside Afghanistan itself. The governments that can, must inside Afghanistan halt the production of illicit drugs. And therefore, there is no clearer program in this area.

“But at the same time, we are, you know -- are in a continual cooperative relationship with the different countries on this issue. And, you know, it's also an internal issue for us. Annually, a group of our border guards has always lose their lives and become martyrs, killed as a result of fighting the phenomenon of the transfer of illicit drugs.”

 

            “On the question of Palestine, whatever the people of Palestine accept, we shall accept, as well. The decision-makers about Palestine are the people of Palestine, the Palestinians, and if they accept something, we will also support the demands of the people.”

Photo credit:  UNGA Ashton Security Council by European External Action Service via Flickr