The country's authorities launched a propaganda counter-offensive

The Iranian Foreign Ministry yesterday called on the Six countries not to repeat the mistakes of the past and to refrain from additional sanctions against Tehran. The head of the department, Manuchehr Mottaki, said: his country wants to quickly exchange low-enriched uranium for 20 percent and is committed to all possible cooperation with the international community. The Foreign Minister's speech was the final salvo of a large-scale information attack, with the help of which Iran hopes to delay the impending sanctions as much as possible.

The fact that Tehran turned to the “six” international mediators (USA, Russia, China, UK, France, Germany) to resolve the Iranian nuclear problem with a request not to tighten sanctions was reported yesterday by the ILNA news agency. It quoted the country's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, who called on the mediators to "make balanced decisions when considering the issue of tightening sanctions against the Islamic Republic." “We recommend that they make a rational decision (when considering the issue of tightening sanctions against Iran. - Kommersant ), - the minister noted. - We strive for bilateral and logical interaction. If anyone decides to use the policy of force, then Iran will resist and defend your position."

Stating that Iran does not advise Western countries to “repeat the unsuccessful experience of past years,” Mr. Mottaki demonstrated Tehran’s peace-loving attitude. According to him, Iran is now more interested than ever in quickly exchanging its low-enriched uranium for one enriched up to 20%. The question, he noted, is only in reaching “certain agreements between the parties,” so Iran is least interested in “playing for time.” “The Tehran reactor needs fuel for a period of one year, and we must provide this fuel. It is not in our interests to delay,” explained Minister Mottaki. “We have had and are continuing negotiations with all members of the UN Security Council on the nuclear issue regarding the main points of the fuel exchange formula. We plan to discuss this issue more intensively in the next ten days."

The minister's conciliatory statement came in the midst of ongoing discussions at the UN on the text of a draft resolution on anti-Iranian sanctions. Last week in New York, the permanent representatives of the Six countries to the UN began discussing American proposals in this regard, which would involve the most stringent measures against Iran, such as a ban on the import of refined petroleum products there (Tehran does not have sufficient capacity to process the oil it produces and forced to import a significant portion of gasoline). Substantive talk about sanctions began immediately after the end of the Washington Nuclear Security Conference, which US President Barack Obama used to drum up broad support for his plans regarding Iran. And he partially succeeded. The countries participating in the conference recognized that the main threat to peace is the fall of nuclear weapons into the hands of terrorists, and agreed to work together to strengthen nuclear security. In addition, Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev once again spoke in Washington for punishing Iran if it is intractable.

But at the same time, Mr. Obama failed to achieve the main thing: to convince reluctant Beijing to support anti-Iranian measures. Barack Obama's 90-minute meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao was unsuccessful. As a result, within the framework of the “six”, which seems to have begun discussing sanctions, there is still no agreement on what they should be.

In the face of this uncertainty, Iran decided to seize the initiative and launched an information attack itself, part of which was yesterday’s speech by Manouchehr Mottaki. And it was started last weekend personally by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who tried to appear in the guise of the main fighter against the proliferation of nuclear weapons, which Barack Obama still considered himself to be. Iran's main PR move in this direction was the alternative nuclear conference held last weekend in Tehran under the motto “Atomic energy for everyone, nuclear weapons for no one.” To outshine the Washington forum, where heads of 47 countries were invited, the organizers of the Tehran conference invited 60 delegations. As a result, representatives of 56 countries arrived in the Iranian capital, 14 of which were represented by heads of foreign ministries, and another ten, including Russia, by deputy foreign ministers.

As the host of the forum, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad inspiredly denounced the United States for its anti-Iranian position and defended his country's right to a peaceful atom. The Syrian and Iraqi delegations that supported him called the nuclear arsenals of the “Zionist regime” the main threat to peace in the Middle East. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari even proposed conducting “inspections at Israeli nuclear facilities.” And the head of the Lebanese delegation, Ali Shami, pointed out the “injustice of pressure on Iran.”

Words of support were expected in Tehran from the Russian Federation and China participating in the conference. However, Deputy Head of the Russian Foreign Ministry Sergei Ryabkov, who went there, did not say a word about Iran in his speech. And after the speech, on the contrary, he called on the Iranians to do everything to “restore the confidence of the international community” in their nuclear program. But Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Cheng Guoping said what Tehran wanted to hear, saying that Beijing objects to the imposition of additional sanctions on Iran in connection with its nuclear program. According to the diplomat, China expects Tehran to fulfill the obligations imposed on it by the world community under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

This position of China suits Iran well and indicates that the latest propaganda efforts of the Iranian side were not in vain. The absence of Beijing's consent will not allow the Six to quickly resolve the issue of sanctions. And in May, Lebanon, which is an active opponent of anti-Iranian sanctions, will become the chairman of the UN Security Council. This means that in the confrontation with the West over the nuclear program, Iran again managed to at least gain time.

Evgeny Gospodinov

Iran armed with nuclear summit