New Delhi
24 March 2007
There exists a "historical misunderstanding" between the United
States and Iran and Washington's past attempts to effect regime changes in Tehran have
only strengthened mutual suspicion, a former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami
said.
"To resolve it won't be an easy task," Mr Khatami on Saturday told the Indian Council of
World Affairs. He alluded to India's position in the emerging world order and invoked the
Indo-Iranian civilisational links to ask "friends of Iran" to get the US to negotiate on the
nuclear issue.
"We are ready to accept and give objective guarantee (to not weaponise)," Mr Khatami
said. He wondered why some of Iran's friends were supporting the US when nuclear
programme was a political, not legal issue. "Maybe I don't understand myself," he said
philosophically.
Mr Khatami said that Non-Proliferation Treaty gives its members access to peaceful
uses of nuclear energy "but they (West) never met their commitments, instead they
created obstacles for us." Iran, he added as an afterthought, was "years away from
getting there" (weaponisation).
He said that there was "consensus" within his country that Iran has a legitimate right to
peaceful uses of nuclear energy. "There is consensus that the long term plan for energy
is in line with our national interests. There may be some difference of ideas but not
about principle," he asserted.
"New crisis would not favour anybody ... we should refrain from creating another crisis
but there is no question of forgetting Iran's legitimate right," he said in response to a
question about dissenting voices in Iran. He added that negotiations with the West would
require "patience and time".
The 63-year-old moderate cleric went on to state that the Holocaust was created by the
West, echoing Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's pronouncements. "Why
concentrate on the Jews when others were killed too? Why should Palestinians pay for
what they (West) have done?" he wanted to know.
Mr Khatami said that the "first stage" of US involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan went in
favour of Iran's interests because two "great enemies" of Iran were destroyed. "But," he
said, "we are quite sad that the region is crisis-ridden now ... continued occupation has
given terrorists a just cause to establish there and plan attacks. The US never stopped
terrorism, it has strengthened it."
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