Iranian Nuclear Chief Salehi: If U.S. Violates Deal, Iran Will Get "Back on Track" within HoursAnd from Matthias Kuntzel at TOI:
In a recent TV interview, Ali-Akbar Salehi, head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization, discussed his country's nuclear program. When asked by the interviewer how long it would take Iran, technically speaking, to get "back on track" if the U.S. violates the terms of the Geneva deal, Saleh responded: "A few hours." "Will we do that?" the interviewer asked, and Salehi answered: "If we need to produce 20% - yes, we will do it."
Following are excerpts from the interview, which aired on Press TV (via the Internet) on February 4, 2014.
Interviewer: The United States says that it has managed to dismantle at least parts of Iran's nuclear program. What do you say to that?
Ali-Akbar Salehi: Well, you can come and see whether our nuclear sites, nuclear equipment, and nuclear facilities are dismantled or not. The only thing that we have stopped and suspended – and that was voluntarily – is the production of 20% enriched uranium. That's it.
Of course, there is another thing that we have undertaken. We have committed ourselves not to install main equipment – and it has been defined what that main equipment is – in the Arak 40 megawatt heavy water reactor.
The nuclear facilities are functioning, and our enrichment is proceeding. It is doing its work, it is producing the 5% enriched uranium, and those centrifuges that stopped producing the 20% will be producing 5% enriched uranium.
In other words, our production of 5% will increase, and the entire nuclear activity of Iran is going on.
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The best part of this Joint Action Plan is the research part. It is so clear that R&D has no constraint.
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We have always been at the negotiating table. It's the other side who appeared at some times, and disappeared at other times. We have never declined negotiating with the 5+1.
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We have always shown our good intentions, but we hope that this time, they really come with good intentions and good faith. If they really come in good faith and with good intentions, this is an opportunity that they can utilize. Otherwise, Iran will pursue its natural course.
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Interviewer: If President Barack Obama is defeated by pro-Israeli lobbies in the Congress – the likes of Bob Menendez and Mark Kirk – and the United States decides to violate the terms of the Geneva deal, how long will it take, technically speaking, for Iran to get back on track?
Ali-Akbar Salehi: A few hours.
Interviewer: Will we do that?
Ali-Akbar Salehi: Well, if we need to produce 20% - yes, we will do it.
Last week I attended a discussion with Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammed Javed Zarif and witnessed his ability to mesmerise his listeners. The event took place at the German Council of Foreign Affairs in Berlin.Read the whole thing.
Mr. Zarif succeeded in dazzling his audience – about 250 foreign policy experts — with commonplace sentences such as: “global security is indivisible”, “dialogue is necessary” or “war is not a good option.” He came across as an Iranian Gorbachev, a good-hearted reformer defying the powers of darkness.
Yet a few days earlier he had bowed his head before the grave of a particularly sinister figure — Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyeh who was not only responsible for the 1983 suicide bombing that killed 241 U.S. soldiers in their barracks building in Beirut, but is also considered the “inventor” of Islamist suicide bombing.
This was not mentioned in Berlin. Zarif presented his country instead as “a status quo power” and an island of moderation within a sea of extremist violence. “We do not support terrorists,” he claimed with a mischievous smile. “We do not fund them.” “We will never start a military operation against anyone.” The audience hung on Zarif’s lips, nobody laughed. The fact, that Iran’s Revolutionary Guards interfere in Iraq and Lebanon and recruit and instruct Shiites from all over the world to conduct military operations in support of Assad was obviously forgotten.
The Berlin audience preferred to believe what Zarif claimed. It willingly surrendered to Zarif’s smile and sonorous bass and rewarded him with applause.
“You have built up today a lot of trust,” stated Paul Freiherr von Maltzahn, the Secretary General of the German Council of Foreign Affairs in his closing words of thanks.
Iran only has to lie. The western media and politicians are very willing to do the rest of the propaganda work for them.
(h/t Josh K)