Iran Intends to Stay With NPT

Iran plans to remain a party to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, but could modify its cooperation with international nuclear inspectors, the nation’s top nuclear negotiator said yesterday (see GSN, Jan. 9).

“We do not insist on quitting the NPT,” Ali Larijani said.  “There are various methods to revise the cooperation level.”

Following last month’s action by the U.N. Security Council to impose sanctions against Iran for refusing to curb its nuclear activities, the nation’s parliament approved a bill to give President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the authority to “revise” Tehran’s cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (see GSN, Jan. 3).

Larijani urged Western nations to negotiate for a long-term resolution to the nuclear crisis.

“We think that returning to talks is the best way to resolve the nuclear issue” (Parisi Hafezi, Reuters/Washington Post, Jan. 9).

Meanwhile, unusual criticism of government policy has emerged in Iran’s press, with two conservative newspapers questioning Ahmadinejad’s handling of the nuclear crisis, Agence France-Presse reported yesterday.

“The tone in which the nuclear issue is treated is aggressive and implies to listeners that there is a kind of stubbornness in our nuclear drive,” says an editorial in Jomhuri Eslami.  “Propagating the nuclear issue in your speeches implies that you are using it to cover up some of the government’s shortcomings,” it tells Ahmadinejad.

A second paper complained of the expense of the nuclear program, among other things.

“The hot speeches of the president brought about two U.N. resolutions against us,” says an editorial in Hamshahri.  “The sensitivities are such that high-ranking Iranian officials have to come up with an efficient strategy before it is too late to bring about more unity in the country and secondly to stop the soaring cost” (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Jan. 9).

Also in Iran, authorities have arrested a parliamentary researcher for allegedly selling nuclear secrets to an exiled Iranian opposition group (see GSN, June 29, 2005).

“The man transferred classified information, including a bulletin on nuclear activities, to the hypocrites (the armed opposition group the People’s Mujahedeen),” state radio announced yesterday.

The suspect worked for the Iranian Parliament’s Research Center, an institution that advises lawmakers on foreign and strategic policy, the Associated Press reported (Associated Press/International Herald Tribune, Jan. 9).

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