As talks between Iran and the 5+1 Powers for a comprehensive nuclear agreement reach a critical point in Vienna, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has made an appeal to the American people via NBC Television.
In an interview recorded earlier this week in Vienna with Meet the Press, Zarif has assured that Iran’s nuclear energy program is only for civilian reactors — monitored by the international community — and is not for atomic bombs: “We want to ensure that nobody is concerned.”
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Pressed on whether Tehran will accept US and European demands to reduce its stock of centrifuges for uranium enrichment, Zarif said only that he will “commit to everything and anything to provide credible assurances” that Iran is not seeking nuclear weapons. He said that Iran would ensure that “break-out” time for conversion to a military program is “not 3 to 4 months, but 3 to 4 years”.
On the Gaza crisis, Zarif countered a question about Iranian provision of weapons to Gaza with the regret that the US, having supplied Israel with arms, had not done nothing over the hundreds of Gazan casualties from Israeli airstrikes.
The Foreign Minister pushed aside a question as to whether embattled Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki should step down by saying the choice is up to the Iraqi people. He then called for a unified response to the threat of the Islamic State and to prevent the break-up of Iraq.
Zarif used the Islamic State to turn away a question about Iran’s continued support of Syria’s Assad regime, given its responsibility for most of the 170,000 deaths in the conflict: “The question is why the United States is continuing to support forces like the Islamic State that are wreaking havoc in the region.”
