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| UK made big mistake by cutting ties with Iran: veteran diplomat |
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 TEHRAN – Iran’s former ambassador to France, Sadeq Kharrazi, says Britain made a big mistake by severing its diplomatic relations with Iran.
In an interview with the Fars News Agency published on Sunday, Kharrazi said that the British government made a “hasty move” to cut diplomatic relations with Tehran, adding that London can seize the current opportunity, as the new Iranian President Hassan Rohani has taken office, to restore ties with Tehran.
Britain withdrew its diplomatic staff from Iran in November 29, 2011, following a protest outside the UK embassy in Tehran.
The former ambassador also said that the case is true with the governments of the United States and Canada and they, too, can put forward their proposals on restoring bilateral relations with the Islamic Republic, and Tehran will examine their proposals according to its national interests.
Kharrazi also said that the U.S. cannot resolve regional issues without Tehran’s help, noting that Iran enjoys a unique geopolitical, geostrategic, and geo-economic status in the region and is a conduit for 67 percent of world’s energy supply.
He added that Europe has to reach out to Tehran due to Iran’s special location in the Persian Gulf region and the Middle East.
Any govt. that took over in Iran in 2005 had to halt enrichment suspension
He also said that any government that took over in 2005 in Iran had to halt the suspension of uranium enrichment.
He added it was his “belief” that even if Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did not take over as president, the course of developments, including extra demands by Western countries, especially the United States, proceeded in a way that made a restart of uranium enrichment unavoidable.
Rohani, who was elected Iran’s president in the June 14 election, led Iran’s negotiations with the European Union trio of Britain, France and Germany from 2003-2005.
“Even if Rohani became president in 2005 we had moved in this direction,” he said.
Kharrazi said in 2005 he was among those who believed that Iran should unfreeze uranium enrichment. He even said in a meeting in Geneva in 2005 Rohani warned the EU trio foreign ministers that Iran would resume uranium enrichment.
However, differences remain over the “way of interaction” which was not “proper”.
The other point is that while Iran was seeking a solution to its nuclear issue Ahmadinejad raised the issue of Holocaust and though this issue made some happy in the world “it was not generally in line with our national interests”.
He said during the Ahmadinejad administration Iran’s negotiating partners extended from the three European countries to six comprising the United States, Russia and China as well which naturally was not in Iran’s favor.
“China and Russia also showed that they played with the Iranian card.”
In the Ahmadinejad government it was also a matter of foreign policy discussion that whether Latin America or Asia was a priority for Iran, the former diplomat said.
Iran formed alliances with countries in Latin America which had no strategic importance in the world, he said, adding in Asia Iran also sought closer ties with countries that their foreign policy priorities were to develop ties with the United States.
“A major damage” to Iran’s interest was a policy shift toward Europe, he argued.
While a large portion of the European economy had been entangled with the Iranian economy the adoption of such a policy naturally led to a decrease in economic ties, he explained.
“… while Europe was turning into one of our serious partners and withstood against the United States and helped us in Lebanon and gave us legitimacy in the nuclear issue it was turned into a wounded competitor and created some problems for us.”
Iran had established strategic ties with France in regard to Lebanon
“We and France established a strategic cooperation with Lebanon on the issue of Lebanon. I worked seriously with Elyse (palace) and (then French president Jacques) Chirac. Its documents are there.”
He added when he was Iran’s ambassador to Paris, Britain and the U.S. were pushing hard to put the Lebanese Hezbollah movement on the list of terrorist groups and “I was given the mission by the Leader to pursue the issue with Chirac and France used all its influence and did not allow this to happen.”
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| Last Updated on 11 August 2013 17:00 |