Azerbaijan, Baku, November 17 / Trend , E.Ostapenko, T.Jafarov /
If there is disagreement in the political elite of Iran, it is split on domestic issues and it is not related to the nuclear program, experts say.
"There is a deep rift within the Iranian political elite, but it may not necessary be the actual issue of striking a deal with the West," European expert on Iranian policies, Rouzbeh Parsi, wrote to Trend in an e-mail.
The differences in the political elite of Iran were testified by the conflicting statements by officials about Iran's nuclear program and the agreement with the West on Iran's export of low-enriched uranium (3.5 percent) for further enrichment (up to 19.75 percent) abroad. Iran gave consent for exporting low-enriched uranium on October 1 in Geneva at a meeting with a delegation of six leading Western powers in the format of 5 +1 (five permanent members of UN Security Council plus Germany).
So, for example, the Chief of the Iranian Army Staff, General Hassan Firouzabadi believes that the scenario of exporting uranium and its further enrichment in Russia and France is not excluded. The head of the parliamentary commission on national security Aladdin Burujerdi said that the West misleads Iran and that not a kilogram of uranium will be exported from the country.
There are two different interconnected reasons in Iran for why there is a resistance to the idea of a nuclear deal with the West, said Parsi, analyst at the European Union Institute for Security Studies.
"One of them is the general notion that the West is not to be trusted and will trick Iran. So it is a kind of standard attitude of being suspicious, and different elements of the elite will have it in different degrees," he said.
But the more important thing at the moment is that there is a deep rift within the Iranian political elite, he supposes. So it may not necessary be the actual issue of striking a deal with the West as such that is problematic but rather who is going to benefit from the deal with the elite itself.
Within the Iranian political elite there are huge divergences of views with regard to the domestic situation and I think that these gaps at the moment are driving the foreign policy as well, Parsi said.
According to the agreements in Geneva the following scheme for exporting Iranian uranium was proposed:
Having received the nuclear material enriched at about 3.5 percent from Iran, Russia will enrich it at 19.75 percent and send to France, where fuel assemblies will be manufactured through the American technology. The experts consider that Iran needs 116 kilograms of fresh fuel, which requires about 1,200 kilograms of raw materials. According to the IAEA estimations, up to now Iran managed to produce about 1,500 kilograms of raw materials by using gas centrifuges in Natanz.
However, the Iranian side refused the fixed scenario and puts forward various additional terms for the export of uranium. For example, was discussed the route of exporting uranium through Turkey, which subsequently was also excluded.
Iran does not believe that the country is split over the agreement with the West.
"The decisions on the nuclear issues of Iran are only made by the Supreme National Security Council of Iran [headed by Saeed Jalili], and the speech of other responsible persons in relation to this matter is entirely their personal opinion," Iranian expert on international and nuclear issues Hassan Behishtipur told Trend via e-mail.
Iran seeks to ensure the reserves of the reactor, but wants to achieve this through international cooperation. However, in order not to be deceived, in the exchange of uranium Iran prefers to the following matters, said Behishtipur.
Firstly, Iran wants to transfer uranium to Western countries in two stages, i.e., 800 kilograms of uranium, which must be exported for additional enrichment, Iran wants to export in two stages at 400 kilograms. Secondly, Iran wants to exchange simultaneously.
Russia analyst Vladimir Yevseyev considers a ruse all of the additional conditions put forward by Iran after the agreement on the Geneva proposal. There are not important differences on the nuclear issue in Iran's political elite, he said.
"Iranian nuclear program is now a matter of national pride for the Iranians. Anyone who says that it should not be made would be regarded as a traitor," Yevseyev, senior fellow at the Center for International Security at the Institute for World Economy and International Relations of Russian Academy of Sciences, told Trend by telephone from Moscow.
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