|
| FILE - In this Sept. 26, 2013 file photo, seated at the table from left, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton attend a meeting of the five permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany during the 68th session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters. Always scrutinized, Iran now will be under even greater watch as the U.S. looks for signals the Islamic Republic's new president is serious and powerful enough to pursue detente with Washington and an end to the painful economic penalties imposed over its nuclear program. |
WASHINGTON
(AP) -- Iran would open its nuclear facilities to international
inspectors as part of broad negotiations with the United States that
could eventually restore diplomatic relations between the adversaries
and those talks have the backing of the nation's supreme leader, Iranian
Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said Sunday.
Zarif
also said the United States and its allies must end their crippling
economic sanctions as part of any deal. The Western-educated Zarif again
repeated Tehran's position that it has no desire for nuclear weapons
but has the right to continue a peaceful nuclear program.
"Negotiations
are on the table to discuss various aspects of Iran's enrichment
program. Our right to enrich is nonnegotiable," Zarif said during an
English-language interview that comes amid a significant shift in
U.S.-Iranian relations.
At the same time,
Zarif's deputy tried to calm hard-liners' fears at home. "We never trust
America 100 percent," Abbas Araghchi was quoted as saying by the
semi-official Fars News Agency, which has close ties to Iran's powerful
Revolutionary Guard.
And Obama's national security adviser expressed similar skepticism given decades of an anti-American record.
Iran's
nuclear ambitions have isolated its people from the rest of the world
and led to harmful economic penalties. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah
Ali Khamenei has declared the use of nuclear weapons against Islamic law
yet has maintained his nation has the right to develop its uranium
program.
But Khamenei, who is the nation's
ultimate decision-maker, also has given his approval for elected leaders
in his country to engage the West over the nuclear program, Zarif said.
That
engagement resulted in a phone conversation Friday between President
Barack Obama and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, the first direct
contact between the two countries' leaders in three decades.
"While
there will surely be important obstacles to moving forward, and success
is by no means guaranteed, I believe we can reach a comprehensive
solution," Obama told reporters Friday at the White House.
That
optimism was certain to be a dominant topic when Obama meets with
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who on Sunday was on his way
to the United States and has long insisted Iran be blocked from
obtaining the capability of obtaining a nuclear weapon.
As
he boarded his plane in Israel, Netanyahu said he was heading to the
United Nations to "tell the truth in the face of the sweet talk and the
onslaught of smiles."
Zarif scoffed at those concerns.
"Well, a smile attack is much better than a lie attack," Zarif said.
He
also said Israeli leaders have been warning that Tehran is months away
from having a nuclear weapon since 1991, and those fears have never been
realized.
"We're not six months, six years,
60 years away from nuclear weapons. We don't want nuclear weapons.
We
believe nuclear weapons are detrimental to our security," said Zarif, a
former nuclear negotiator.
The potential
diplomatic thaw after a generationlong freeze is far from certain, and
Zarif indicated this would not be simple. Iran's top diplomat also said
his country is willing to forgive the United States' history with Iran
but will not forget decades of distrust between the two nations.
Nor
was the United States rushing to forget Iran's past duplicity,
hostility and support for organizations its State Department has labeled
terrorist groups.
"Obviously, we and others
in the international community have every reason to be skeptical of that
and we need to test it, and any agreement must be fully verifiable and
enforceable," said Susan Rice, the White House national security
adviser.
Rice said sanctions would remain in
place until the United States and its allies were satisfied Iran was not
pursuing nuclear weapons.
In a separate
interview, Secretary of State John Kerry said an agreement could come in
a matter of months if Iran came to the table in good faith.
"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,"
he said last week before Obama and Rouhani spoke.
The skepticism went both ways.
"Definitely,
a history of high tensions between Tehran and Washington will not go
back to normal relations due to a phone call, meeting or negotiation,"
said Araghchi.
The U.S. and Iran broke ties
after the 1979 Islamic Revolution when mobs stormed the U.S. Embassy in
Tehran. A total of 52 hostages were held for 444 days.
Araghchi also reiterated Khamenei's statements that he is not optimistic about the potential outcome.
The
focus now turns to negotiations among foreign ministers and other
officials from the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council
plus Germany. The group wants Iran to present a more detailed proposal
for a path forward before or at the next round of negotiations,
scheduled in Geneva on Oct. 15-16.
If Iran
complies, the oil-rich nation could see the easing of economic sanctions
imposed after years of Iran's stonewalling inspections and secrecy
about its nuclear activities. The West has long insisted on inspections,
and Zarif now seems open to them.
"There may
have been technical problems. They may have been problems of
transparency, and we are prepared to address those problems," he said.
Zarif spoke Sunday on ABC's "This Week." Rice spoke to CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS." Kerry was interviewed on CBS' "60 Minutes."
