Azerbaijan, Baku, Dec. 15 / Trend T. Konyayeva /
Experts are calling head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi's appointment as acting foreign minister ironic and a well thoughout decision, despite its apparent absurdity.
"The Iranian president has appointed a technocrat Iranian foreign minister without any diplomatic experience to manage him easily and tell him his opinion," Reza Taghizadeh, a member of the Trend Expert Council, told Trend over the phone.
On Monday, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki was dismissed upon the decree of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Mottaki served as foreign minister for seven years. He was appointed to the post during the first term of Ahmadinejad's presidency.
Salehi, heading the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization, was appointed as Iran's acting foreign minister.
United States expert Paul Sullivan considers Salehi's appointing as "striking irony."
"Salehi has a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from the time when the United States was supporting the training of Iranians in nuclear sciences in the United States Washington was a big supporter of nuclear electricity in Iran during the time of the Shah. Dr. Salehi was one of the big beneficiaries of this strategy," Professor of Economics at the U.S. National Defense University and
Georgetown University Paul Sullivan told Trend.
How odd that we now see the ironies of the previous policies superimposed on the policies of today, he said on his own.
At present, the United States is one of the countries accusing Iran of developing nuclear weapons for military purposes under the guise of peaceful atom program.
Tehran denies all the charges, saying that its nuclear program has peaceful purposes.
Until now, the U.N. Security Council adopted six resolutions, four of which are aimed at imposing sanctions against Iran, requiring to abandon uranium enrichment, and two resolutions containing warnings.
Besides supplying one of the most important nuclear facilities of the country - Tehran nuclear reactor to Iran in 1960s, the United States delivered weapons-grade uranium necessary for its operation. Today, one of the problems is the fact that weapons-fuel, about 10 pounds of highly enriched uranium, supplied by the United States is a valuable material for atomic bombs.
