KEY POINTS:
In a week of sabre-rattling by the United States and Israel, a visiting senior Iranian official sought to reassure that Iran is not seeking nuclear weapons.
In recent days, a hardline Israeli minister, Shaul Mofaz, suggested a Western military strike on Iran is "unavoidable", a US State Department official said he had "deep, deep suspicions" that Iran is trying to build nuclear weapons and president George Bush repeated his sinister insistence that "all options are on the table".
Speaking to the Herald on a visit to meet New Zealand officials, senior Iranian official Seyed Mohammad Ali Hosseini said dwindling resources of fossil fuel meant cheap, clean and sustainable nuclear energy was central to Iran's development.
"We believe that using nuclear energy peacefully is a requirement and should be done at once." Iran complied with all requirements of the watchdog bodies, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said Hosseini, who has had roles in Iran's defence research centre, presidential office and is currently foreign ministry spokesman and special aide to the foreign minister.
"We haven't got any hidden activities. All our activities are clear. So many cameras of the agency have been installed in our power plants. The agency has supervision over all our activities."
"Inspectors are coming and going continuously and no diversion [to nuclear arms development] has ever been observed. So do you think it is concerning? In all the reports of the agency, nothing has been mentioned that we breached any regulations technically [or] legally."
However, aggressive comments by Israel and the US follow an unusually tough speech by Mohamed ElBaradei, IAEA director, who said that Iran appeared to be holding back information needed to clarify intelligence reports (from 10 countries but primarily the US) that it researched nuclear bombs in secret.
He demanded "full disclosure" but Iran says the material is forged.
Iran had not provided the IAEA with all access to documents and individuals requested, ElBaradei said.
The intelligence documents (which have not been provided to Iran because of US concerns that could compromise sources) reportedly point to links in Iran between uranium processing, explosives testing and attempts to modify a missile cone in a way suitable for a nuclear warhead.
Hosseini said that claims Iran had a hidden agenda had "no legal or logical basis" and resulted from a "politically hostile approach, particularly from the Bush administration".
Comment by the Bush administration that Iran might in future develop nuclear weapons "means that they couldn't find any failure of Iran's activities in the past or present ... so claim they are worried about the future plans of Iran. So where are these predictions rooted when we have a clean record?" Hosseini asks.
The IAEA said in its February report that "as a result of Iran running an undeclared nuclear programme for almost two decades, there has been [a] confidence deficit on the part of the international community about the intentions [and] future intentions of Iran's nuclear programme."
Iran says its enrichment programme as a whole was not hidden nor secret, though it was forced to resort to some clandestine activity due to "US obstructionism".
"New Zealand should be worried about the only country that does have nuclear weapons [in the region] and is threatening other countries in the Middle East," Hosseini said.
Iran was the first country to propose the Middle East be a nuclear weapon-free zone, and when Iraq used chemical weapons against it did not respond with chemical weapons.
According to surveys, a majority of Iranians support their country's nuclear energy programme, including a full fuel-cycle programme, but most also believe that nuclear weapons are contrary to Islam.
Hosseini noted a stable Middle East was beneficial to oil prices and said he believed a good mechanism to support both the producers and the consumers of oil should be established.
He said Iran was concerned about the activities of the US which was flouting Non-Nuclear Proliferation Treaty commitments with its current production of nuclear arms "and has the record of using nuclear weapons itself, in Hiroshima and Nagasaki".
"America also indirectly threatens some countries by assisting the Israeli regime to develop nuclear weapons. America is threatening the peace and security in the world."
He declined to comment on the candidates in the US presidential election. "We don't support either. We are pragmatic. We should first of all observe what they do."
$129.95 MILLION
Value of NZ exports to Iran in the year to June 2007. Butter, milk powder and wool were the key commodities traded.
$49.72 MILLION
Imports in the same period. Petroleum products made up the lion's share of trade (91 per cent). Dates, figs, carpets and grapes were also imported.
