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April 30, 2014

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Eurasian panel discuss Iranian nuclear program

Source: Shanghai Daily | April 30, 2014, Wednesday | Print Edition

EDITOR’S note:

Leading political figures from East and West met last week at the 12th Eurasian Media Forum in Astana, Kazakhstan, trying to define a new world order in international relations that could defuse tensions from Ukraine to Iran. The conference over the years is becoming a recognized platform for discussing pressing issues of the day.

Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev said this year’s forum, sponsored by Samruk Kazyna, Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund, was held during a difficult international political situation, represented by the escalating tensions in Ukraine and tough negotiations between Iran and world powers on Tehran’s nuclear program. Shanghai Daily reporter Fu Chenghao puts together some speakers’ views on the Iranian issue at the forum during a panel discussion.

Newt Gringrich, former speaker of the US House of Representatives:

If Iran could prove through open inspections that it had no nuclear weapon program, there would be a dramatic improvement in relations with the rest of world. If not, there would be enormous pressure on the White House to impose stronger sanctions that would have a real effect on the Iranian economy. This would be the least bad step, before war.

Still, the whole world agreed that Iran had a right to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

Seyed Mohammad Kazem Sajjadpour, adviser to the foreign minister of Iran:

These sanctions have been imposed unjustly on the false assumption that we intend to build nuclear weapons, but we have never had a military nuclear program. The media has been used to build up international concerns.

All sanctions should be lifted in order to create an atmosphere of mutual trust. Sanctions do bring more confrontation. Iran’s nuclear activity has expanded and not stopped after sanctions, so the goal of sanctions has never been achieved.

Rajiv Sekri, former secretary of India’s Ministry of External Affairs:

Sanctions have to led to something, but actually they didn’t yield the expected result. In fact, they have failed and created anti-American sentiment among the Iranian public. I don’t think that sanctions have to be entered beyond the scope of the United Nations, and it’s necessary to build reasonable, adult dialogue.

The position of Iran is very understandable. It’s a country surrounded by US bases and US allies, with a record of intervention. It needs reassurance and respect for its right to enrich uranium for its own nuclear program.

Radzhab Safarov, CEO of the Center for Modern Iran, Russia:

The Iranian nuclear program was created out of the blue.

Israel almost every day, relying on its own research, informs the international community that Iran is on the verge of creating nuclear weapons, and it allows Israel through its own leverage to get what it needs, primarily from the US.

Foreign Views
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