We in Iran don't need this quarrel

Iran's ambassador to the UN, Javad Zarif has done an interesting article in The Herald Tribune. Here's a taster.

The controversy over Iran's peaceful nuclear program has obscured one point in particular: There need not be a crisis. A solution to the situation is possible and eminently within reach.

Lost amid the rhetoric is this: Iran has a strong interest in enhancing the integrity and authority of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. It has been in the forefront of efforts to ensure the treaty's universality. Iran's reliance on the nonproliferation regime is based on legal commitments, sober strategic calculations and spiritual and ideological doctrine.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic, has issued a decree against the development, production, stockpiling and use of nuclear weapons. Let me be very clear. Iran defines its national security in the framework of regional and international cooperation and considers regional stability indispensable for its development. We are party to all international agreements on the control of weapons of mass destruction. We want regional stability.

We have never initiated the use of force or resorted to the threat of force against a fellow member of the United Nations.

Although chemical weapons have been used on us, we have never used them in retaliation. We have not invaded another country in 250 years.

Since October 2003, Iran has accepted a robust inspection regimen by the United Nations. We have allowed more than 1,700 person-days of inspections and adopted measures to address past reporting failures. Most of the outstanding issues in connection with uranium conversion activities, laser enrichment, fuel fabrication and the heavy-water research reactor program have been resolved.

Iran has gone beyond its international obligations and allowed the International Atomic Energy Agency to repeatedly visit military sites - and to allow inspectors to take environmental samples. The agency has concluded time and again that there is no evidence of an Iranian nuclear weapons program.

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Tags: Iran, UN, inspectors, inspections, crisis, US, war, uranium, nuclear weapons,