Moderate Iranians back president’s nuclear stance

By Andrew Beatty

Date: 03/11/05

Hopes of engaging Iran's moderates in efforts to halt the country's nuclear programme diminished this week as senior government figures sought to present a united front in the face of international criticism.

"Do not ever think you are confronting [just] a single party or group," warned former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

Although Rafsanjani, currently head of the State Expedience Council, ap-peared to distance himself from his successor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's comments that Israel should be wiped off the map, he warned that on the nuclear issue the West was facing "an entire nation determined to defend its right".

In talks with Iran the EU has offered a host of trade and other sweeteners in return for a permanent halt to uranium enrichment, in the hope that such an offer will tip the balance in favour of moderates within the regime.

Rafsanjani, still powerful despite losing presidential elections to Ahmadinejad earlier this year, is often seen by diplomats as part of a group of officials who believe Iran's international isolation is too high a price to pay for developing a nuclear programme.

His comments came as Ahmadinejad was strongly rebuked by the EU government leaders and as some in the EU and US coupled their concerns with renewed criticism of Iran's continued efforts to complete the nuclear fuel cycle.

Following last week's meeting of EU leaders at Hampton Court, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair rhetorically asked: "Can you imagine a state like that, with an attitude like that, having a nuclear weapon?"

Following the criticism, Tehran sacked its ambassador to the UK, apparently for failing to explain the government's position.

"The term of the ambassador to the UK has been terminated after one year. He will leave in the next few weeks after a farewell to the host nation," a press official at the Iranian embassy in London declared.

Unconfirmed reports also indicate the ambassadors to Germany, France and Malaysia and around a dozen other countries have been sacked.

But Ali Ansari, an Iran expert at Chatham House warned that last week's events said more about the Iranian president than any change of policy on the nuclear issue.

"I do not think that you can conflate the two issues as much as some in the West would want to," he said.

Others said Rafsanjani's comments amount to a negotiating position.

"I think he is warning that although they may be divided that they will not just roll over," said Patrick Clawson, the deputy director for research at the Washington Institute for Near East Studies.

With EU talks suspended, attention is now turning to Russian offers to enrich uranium for Iran on Russian soil, as part of an international consortium.

The International Atomic Energy Agency is scheduled to meet in late November when members will look into referring Iran's case to the United Nations Security Council where it may face sanctions.

Ahead of that meeting UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan is expected to travel to the country.

Author suggests that hopes of engaging Iran's moderates in efforts to halt the country's nuclear programme diminished when senior government figures sought to present a united front in the face of international criticism. Comments by former President Rafsanjani, currently head of the State Expedience Council.