Iran Protests Treatment by West

Said Jalili, the chief nuclear negotiator for Iran, has sent a letter of protest to Javier Solana, foreign policy of the European Union, expressing his country's concerns about how the west is treating Iran with regard to its suspected nuclear weapons program.

AFP cited Iran's Supreme National Security Council office as saying the protest letter had been delivered October 6 by Iranian ambassador to Brussels Ali Asghar Khaji. Foreign Ministers courtesy copied on the letter included the ministers of the United States, France, Russia, China, Great Britain and Germany.

The United States and the European Union have been going around and around with Iran on this issue for five years. Tehran has given the west no reason to believe it is not stalling for more time while continuing to work on its nuclear program. Three rounds of weak sanctions have had no discernible effect, and any fourth round is likely to be meaningless given the veto power of both Russia and China, two countries heavily invested in Iran.

The following is some of the text of the letter, which can be found here.

"His Excellency Dr. Solana, High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy/Secretary-General of the Council of the European Union and Representative of the six countries.

"Excellency,

"In view of the Geneva Talks and the emphasis of both sides on presenting a clear response to each other, the Islamic Republic of Iran in its letter of 5 August 2008 expressed its readiness to offer transparent response vis-à-vis reciting clear replies to its questions.

"Soon after, while welcoming this approach you asked in your telephone conversation of 11 August 2008 that our deputies have a meeting to discuss these ambiguities and questions. However, despite the readiness of the Islamic Republic of Iran, your deputy was not ready to have this meeting even 17 days after that date.

"It is interesting for the international community to see that in the course of talks when a rational question is raised, the other party to the talks resorts to levers of pressure instead of offering answers to questions and trying to remove ambiguities. In the judgment of the world community, this unreasonable behavior is an indication of the lack of a clear response to the principled questions of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

"About 6 months ago, the Islamic Republic of Iran proposed a package of proposals, based on its actual capabilities and capacities, for the purpose of paving the way for talks on common concerns with collective commitments to have a world based on justice, peace and harmony. You are fully aware of the main building blocs of our package for a world free of weapons of mass destruction, collective efforts for nuclear disarmaments and nonproliferation.

"It appears that these proposals are not pleasing for those powers that have worked many years to stockpile and proliferate nuclear weapons.

"There is no doubt that accepting of this proposal, trying not to miss the time and the opportunity and avoiding illogical behavior, could have given us a solid base for constructive cooperative relationships."