SPIEGEL Interview with Iranian Foreign Minister Salehi 'Assad Poses No
Threat to the Middle East'
Last week, the violence in Syria came close to spilling across the country's
borders and spiraling into a regional conflict. SPIEGEL spoke with Iranian
Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi about his country's continued support of
Syrian autocrat Bashar Assad, NATO's delicate role in the region and Iran's
nuclear program.
10/08/2012
The Frankfurt residence of the Iranian consul general is a yellow villa in
the posh neighborhood of Sachsenhausen, with artificial turf in front of the
entrance and Persian carpets in the corridors and rooms. There are bowls of
pistachios and figs on the table in the reception room, and the walls are
adorned with pictures of Iran's late revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini and his successor, Ali Khamenei.
For a few hours last Thursday, this building served as the headquarters for
Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, 63, who had arrived from New York
at noon and had a layover in Frankfurt on his return trip to Tehran. Salehi
had just attended the United Nations General Assembly and subsequently met
with his counterparts from Egypt, Turkey and Saudi Arabia to talk about the
escalation in the Middle East. These four nations form the so-called Syria
quartet, which is endeavoring to end the civil war in the country. Salehi is
one of the few Iranian top politicians who is familiar with both the West
and the East. He studied at the American University of Beirut and received a
PhD in engineering from MIT in 1977. In 2009, he became the head of Iran's
nuclear program. Now, he is also Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's
representative abroad.
One day before the interview,
<
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/residents-of-akcakale-pressure-tu
rkish-government-to-take-action-on-syria-a-859797.html> Syrian troops fired
mortars on a Turkish border town, killing five people, and on Friday another
mortar round flew over the border. At least 34 Syrian soldiers are believed
to have died from Turkish retaliatory attacks. Turkey is a member of NATO
while Syria is an ally of Iran. Salehi has assumed a key role in the
conflict
<
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/fighting-along-syrian-borders-rai
ses-risk-of-regional-war-a-859691.html> .
_____
SPIEGEL: Mr. Foreign Minister, it is beginning to look as though a war could
break out on NATO's border with Syria.
<
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/turkey-nears-war-with-syria-after
-deadly-attack-on-border-town-a-859509.html> How dangerous is the situation
in the region?
Salehi: In the name of God, the compassionate and the merciful, we have to
prevent catastrophes. I call on both sides to exercise restraint. In Syria,
thousands are fighting against the government of Bashar al-Assad, and they
are armed with state-of-the-art weaponry. If Turkey were to massively
retaliate sometime in the coming weeks or months, they would have no
objections. They want to render peace initiatives impossible. They are
seeking an escalation.
SPIEGEL: Are you referring to the armed Syrian opposition? Or to terrorists
from the international al-Qaida network?
Salehi: I don't intend to associate the perpetrators of violence with a
specific country or a specific organization. But one thing is certain:
Military forces infiltrating Syria are seeking to internationalize the
conflict. If the region goes up in flames, then they have achieved their
objective.
SPIEGEL: Yet it appears to have been the Syrian military that fired across
the border, not the rebels or the perpetrators of violence that you are
referring to. Do you condemn Turkey's retaliatory attacks?
Salehi: Every country has the right to protect itself if it is attacked.
When the Syrians shot down a Turkish fighter jet in June, though, Ankara
refrained from launching a counterattack. At the time, I expressed my
recognition of this to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan -- it was
statesmanlike and wise. Now, a sense of proportionality must be retained, or
we will fall into the trap of the extremists.
SPIEGEL: Since Turkey is a member of NATO, the organization is standing by
its side and condemning the incident as an "aggressive act."
Salehi: It would not be appropriate for me to give advice to the Western
military alliance. But NATO cannot afford to make a mistake and worsen the
situation.
SPIEGEL: Such as the establishment of a buffer zone in northern Syria and a
no-fly zone for Assad's air force?
Salehi: By doing so, the West would react just as wrongly as it did in 2011
in Libya. This was an improper interference in the internal affairs of a
sovereign state ...
SPIEGEL: ... but it probably prevented a massacre in Benghazi and helped an
entire people free itself from a dictator.
Salehi: We should proceed according to the rules of international law. Syria
is in the midst of a crisis; four or five of its 14 provinces are facing
difficulties. Bashar al-Assad's government largely has the situation under
control.
SPIEGEL: You are downplaying the actions of a regime that is shelling its
own people -- the civil war has already claimed the lives of 30,000 people.
Salehi: What is happening in Syria is tragic, and its not just government
troops that are responsible. Assad poses no threat to the region, or to
world peace, for that matter. We are not uncritical of him; the government
has made mistakes. Originally there were only calls for more democracy and
changes. But then the movement began to be increasingly controlled from
abroad.
SPIEGEL: Are you thinking of the US and Israel? Or Qatar and Saudi Arabia,
which are arming the resistance and are now calling for an Arab intervention
force?
Salehi: Whatever the case, we are dealing with an external push for regime
change. Our experiences in Iraq show that some powers are willing to resort
to any means and any manipulation. In order to legitimize their war against
Baghdad, the US accused Saddam Hussein of producing weapons of mass
destruction. Something similar cannot be allowed to happen with Assad.
SPIEGEL: There are hardly any high-ranking international politicians who can
still reach Assad. You spoke with the Syrian president over two weeks ago in
Damascus, and it was a long and intensive discussion.
Salehi: I had just come from a meeting of our Syria group in Cairo, and I
presented to the president what the four of us expect of him: reforms,
concessions and sincere changes. He agreed with me and pointed out that he
has already begun to introduce these changes. He said that he wanted to work
together with a constructive opposition and cooperate with the United
Nations.
SPIEGEL: And you actually believe him?
Salehi: In Damascus I met a president who is perfectly aware of the critical
situation. He didn't seem to be out of touch, but rather self-confident and
combative. The president appeared confident that he could win the conflict
in Syria militarily.
SPIEGEL: Every day, there are new attacks. The opposition can now attack
even key institutions such as the state television and the headquarters of
the intelligence agency. The city of Aleppo, a major financial and
commercial center, is in flames.
Salehi: The president is realistic. He does not believe that Syria can be
pacified from one day to the next. He assumes that, like in Iraq, there will
continue to be additional trouble spots and pockets of opposition.
SPIEGEL: With the exception of Iran, and perhaps Russia and China,
practically every government in the world is urging Assad to resign.
Salehi: The president appeared to be open to any inner-Syrian solution, but
he categorically rejected a resignation forced from the outside. Which is
why he rejects the idea of seeking asylum elsewhere.
SPIEGEL: Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi is demanding that Tehran rethink
its position. According to information from Western intelligence agencies,
however, your government is continuing to send arms to Damascus and is
supporting the regime with military advisers and even elite Revolutionary
Guard forces.
Salehi: That is absurd. Syria has an army of 500,000 men; they don't need
any forces from us. But of course we sold weapons to Damascus -- before the
crisis. It is perfectly normal for us to send military advisers in this
context: Every state sends such experts to allied governments. The
international sanctions against Iran have forced us to build our own defense
industry, which has been highly successful in selling its products. These
are perfectly legal deals. We are not doing this any differently than the
Germans.
SPIEGEL: Where, in your opinion, is the red line that Assad cannot be
allowed to cross? Would it be the use of chemical weapons against the
opposition?
Salehi: Any government that uses weapons of mass destruction against its own
people has lost its legitimacy. This applies to Syria, and it also applies
to us.
SPIEGEL: Another foreign power has just drawn a red line for your
government. Speaking before the UN General Assembly, Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu held up a chart intended to illustrate when Iran will
have enough enriched uranium to build a nuclear bomb -- and used this to
argue that your country should be attacked.
Salehi: The presentation was bizarre; I found it childish to hold up a
caricature of a bomb. If the Israelis had wanted to attack us, and if they
could have done so, they would have done so long ago. In 1981, they
destroyed an Iraqi reactor without warning. But
<
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/spiegel-interview-with-ronald-lau
der-on-the-iran-conflict-a-859215.html> they have been threatening us for
years, on every occasion and publicly. They know what would happen if they
attacked. We don't want war, but we will defend ourselves. Aggressors will
pay a high price.
SPIEGEL: The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna has pages
of evidence pointing toward the "possible military dimension" of your
nuclear program.
Salehi: We insist on our right to enrich uranium for the peaceful use of
nuclear energy. There is no proof that we are pursuing nuclear research for
military purposes.
SPIEGEL: For months now, you have refused to give the IAEA access to the
military complex at Parchin.
Salehi: We have to differentiate between two things here: First, we have our
obligations under the non-proliferation treaty, which we are fulfilling ...
SPIEGEL: ... so you say ...
Salehi: ... second, there are demands that go beyond this, and that we are
not obliged to meet, such as those relating to a military complex like
Parchin.
SPIEGEL: The inspectors suspect that scientists there have secretly tested
nuclear warheads, and Iran is now attempting to erase all traces of them.
Salehi: That is ridiculous. Nuclear research leaves fingerprints that can
never be totally eliminated. I do not want to rule out that we may find a
way to open Parchin -- on a voluntary basis, as we have done on other
occasions in the past.
SPIEGEL: Concessions in the nuclear talks are urgently expected of you.
Among diplomats, there is little optimism that the conflict over your
disputed nuclear program can still be resolved peacefully.
Salehi: I am more optimistic here. If our right to enrichment is recognized,
we are prepared to offer an exchange. We would voluntarily limit the extent
of our enrichment program, but in return we would need a guaranteed supply
of the relevant fuels from abroad.
SPIEGEL: Many Western politicians believe that you are just playing for
time. After four rounds of UN sanctions, the European Union now intends to
toughen its sanctions against Iran on Oct. 15.
Salehi: Not a big deal. The
<
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/nuclear-technology-for-iran-germa
n-investigators-uncover-illegal-exports-a-858893.html> sanctions create
inconveniences. For over 30 years now, we have been living with boycott
measures that ultimately make us independent and strong.
SPIEGEL:
<
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/sanctions-create-problems-for-ira
n-air-in-europe-a-858886.html> Really? Last year alone, your currency lost
over two-thirds of its value against the dollar. The official inflation rate
is 25 percent. In Tehran, discontented retailers recently demonstrated and
shouted: "Down with the government!"
Salehi: Iranian society is used to living with hardships -- perhaps more so
than people in Spain and Greece. We can count on the patience of our people.
What about you in Europe?
SPIEGEL: Mr. Foreign Minister, thank you for this interview.
Interview conducted by Erich Follath and Dieter Bednarz
------------[ Sent via the dehai-wn mailing list by dehai.org]--------------
Received on Mon Oct 08 2012 - 18:03:53 EDT
