Tag: Iran

Interviews

Diplomat Back in Iran After Exile in the US

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One of Iran’s most prominent former diplomats, an ally of President Hassan Rouhani, has returned to the country, ending his unofficial exile in the United States, state news media reported on Tuesday.

The former diplomat, Seyed Hossein Mousavian, who for many years was the spokesman of Iran’s nuclear negotiation team, left Tehran for Princeton University in 2009 after hard-liners accused him of espionage during earlier rounds of nuclear talks with European powers.

“I have returned to Iran to stay,” he was quoted as saying by the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency, during a commemorative event for the death of the mother of Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

At Princeton, where Mr. Mousavian was a research scholar in the Program on Science and Global Security, he also acted as an unofficial Iranian government representative, answering queries or commenting for international news media about the nuclear program and the prospects for improved relations between Iran and the United States. It is unclear whether he also met with representatives of the United States government.

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“Diplomat Back in Iran After Exile in the US,” Interview with Hossein Mousavian, Thomas Erdbrink, New York Times, December 31, 2013.

Essays, Publications

Solving the Nuclear Conflict with Iran

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Key Points:

  • The breakthrough in the negotiations with regard to the Iranian nuclear program was reached because the parameters of the negotiations have changed. This enabled rapprochement between Iran and the United States. The willingness of the P5+1 to accept limited enrichment and provide sanctions relief was key to securing Iranian consent.
  • A sustainable solution to the nuclear conflict with Iran can be agreed upon only on the basis of the NPT and necessitates an end to the discrimination of Iran compared to other member states. Measures that go beyond the provisions of the NPT can be complied with for a specified period of time as a confidence building measure.
  • A final deal can be reached if US-Iran relations are further improved to guarantee domestic US support for an agreement.

Read Policy Brief

“Solving the Nuclear Conflict with Iran,” Hossein Mousavian, Korber Policy Brief, No.2. Published by Korber Foundation, December 2013. 

Articles, Publications

Una nueva era nuclear en el golfo Pérsico (Spanish)

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El enriquecimiento de uranio ha sido el foco de la disputa sobre el programa nuclear iraní entre este país y las potencias mundiales, especialmente Estados Unidos, desde el año 2003. Irán viene argumentando que el enriquecimiento es su “derecho inalienable” en virtud del Tratado de No Proliferación (TNP) y que detener ese proceso es una “línea roja” que no se puede cruzar. Estados Unidos se ha opuesto a la posición de Irán.

El 24 de noviembre, después de cuatro días de conversaciones maratonianas, Irán y el Grupo 5+1 (los cinco miembros permanentes del Consejo de Seguridad de la ONU más Alemania), firmaron finalmente el acuerdo provisional de Ginebra; debe interpretarse como el preámbulo para una solución integral y a largo plazo. Poco después, el ministro de Relaciones Exteriores iraní, Mohamed Javad Zarif, aseguró en una conferencia de prensa, que hay en el acuerdo, en dos ocasiones, “una muy clara referencia sobre el hecho de que el programa de enriquecimiento iraní continuará y será parte de cualquier acuerdo, ahora y en el futuro”. Zarif estaba aludiendo a un texto en el Plan de Acción Conjunto que establece que el acuerdo final implicará “un programa de enriquecimiento definido de mutuo acuerdo, con límites prácticos y medidas de transparencia para garantizar el carácter pacífico del programa”.

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“Una nueva era nuclear en el golfo Pérsico,” Hossein Mousavian, El Pais, December 11, 2013. (Spanish)

Articles, Publications

It was not sanctions that brought Iran to the table

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As Iran meets world powers in Geneva today for this month’s second round of talks on its nuclear programme, there is much self-congratulation about the supposed effectiveness of the sanctions after decades of intransigence.

But the idea that it is sanctions that have brought Tehran to the table is wrong. The real cause is the desire of new President Hassan Rouhani to reach a rapprochement with the US, the EU, its neighbours and other world powers, alongside the fact that the US red line has changed from “no enrichment of uranium” to “no nuclear bomb”.

“It was not sanctions that brought Iran to the table,” Hossein Mousavian, Financial Times, November 19, 2013.

Essays, Publications

Does Iran Seek Nuclear Weapons?

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This paper presents a comprehensive explanation as to why Iran is not after a nuclear bomb and provides twenty-five reasons to strengthen this position. Examples range from a chronology of Israeli accusations that claim Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons; elaborating on the findings by the International Atomic Energy Agency’s inspectors of Iranian nuclear facilities; the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei’s viewpoint on nuclear weapons; the findings of US and other Western intelligence agency’s regarding the Iran’s nuclear capability; and instances of missed opportunity that have evaded a resolution of the nuclear dossier. Furthermore, the paper elaborates on a framework for diplomatic solution to the nuclear standoff and its contribution to the realization of Weapons of Mass Destruction Free Zone in the Middle East.

Read Paper

“Does Iran Seek Nuclear Weapons?” Hossein Mousavian, International Studies Journal (ISJ), Vol. 10, No. 2, pp. 129-142. Published by the International Studies Journal, November 2013.