Statements by U.S. Officials

AMBASSADOR SCHULTE:  Thank you very much.  I just completed two good and fruitful days of consultations with Turkish authorities on Iran’s nuclear program.  We exchanged information and assessments on that program.  We talked about the strategy to achieve a diplomatic settlement, and, importantly, I listened carefully to the views of your authorities on the situation, recognizing that Turkey is an important NATO ally to the United States, and recognizing that Turkey as a neighbor of Iran would also be directly impacted by a nuclear-armed Iran.  It is very clear to me that our two governments share concern about the Iranian nuclear program.  And it is clear to me that we share an understanding of the need for the international community to speak with one voice in calling on Iran to listen to the International Atomic Energy Agency, to collaborate with the Agency, to suspend the activities that concern us so much, and to negotiate seriously with the EU-3 and the Russian Federation.  I am pleased to take your questions.

QUESTION:  Mr. Ambassador, you talked about speaking with one voice as the international community.  But as you also said, Turkey is a neighbor to Iran.  Turkey is buying things from Iran; there is bilateral trade.  Do you think that Turkey can be in full cooperation in terms of isolating Iran?

AMBASSADOR SCHULTE:  I think that Turkey has a very important role to play in achieving a diplomatic settlement.  Turkey is well respected within the region.  Its voice carries an important special weight.  By standing up with the rest of the international community and making clear to the authorities in Tehran that they need to choose a different course, I think that will help us all be successful in achieving a diplomatic settlement.  I refer back to the statement made earlier this week by the Foreign Ministry Spokesman, Mr. Tan, in which he joined with the US and with other countries in expressing concern about Iran’s activities, and in calling on them to cooperate with the international community.  That type of message is very important.

QUESTION:  The American position about Iran’s nuclear program is sometimes controversial in Turkey, because, if I am not wrong, there is an agreement between India and the United States about nuclear cooperation.  But India later became a nuclear power.  But Iran is also in the same way, and you are reacting against Iran.  Don’t you think there is a contradiction between these two approaches of the United States?

SENIOR US GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL:  One thing we have to focus on is the fact that Iran signed the Nonproliferation Treaty, and Iran repeatedly points to the Nonproliferation Treaty as giving it a right to the peaceful use of nuclear power.  We have no problem with Iran taking advantage of nuclear power for peaceful purposes.  Our concern is that they are using the cover of a peaceful program to pursue a military program.  And while they talk about their rights under the Nonproliferation Treaty, they have forgotten about their obligations.  In fact, they have violated their obligations.  The authorities in Tehran talk about the program being a peaceful program, but I think we are all obligated to ask a series of questions.  If this is a peaceful program, why did they seek to conceal major aspects of it for eighteen years?  If this is a peaceful program, why have they not cooperated fully with Mohammad El-Baradei and the inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency?  If this is peaceful program, why are there unexplained connections to the Iranian military?  If this is a peaceful program, why did they acquire material and technology for their enrichment from the A.Q. Khan black market network?  This is a network that did not supply peaceful nuclear technology.  This is a network that countries like North Korea used to acquire nuclear weapons material and technology.  If this is a peaceful program, why does it make no sense economically?  The Iranian Government says they need to enrich uranium for their nuclear power plants.  They don’t have a nuclear power plant today.  For the one nuclear power plant they are working on in Bushehr, they have a contract with Russia to provide the fuel for ten years.  Even if they put together a modest nuclear power plant industry, they don’t have enough uranium in Iran to enrich to provide the fuel for that.  They do have enough uranium to enrich for a nice little stockpile of nuclear weapons.  None of these are signs of a peaceful program, and all of these are reasons why the IAEA has found that they violated their international obligations, that they have lost the confidence of the international community in the peaceful nature of their programs.  This is why the IAEA has just reported Iran to the Security Council.  Now the report to the Security Council is not the end of diplomacy.  The report to the Security Council is part of diplomacy. And the Turkish Government, the United States Government, and the governments of just about every other country in the world agree that our goal is to achieve a diplomatic solution.  We need to convince the leadership in Tehran that the best course for their country, in fact the best course for the Iranian people, is to choose a path of negotiation and cooperation rather than the path of confrontation that they have selected to date. 

QUESTION:  The United States had also made the same claims for Iraq about weapons of mass destruction.  You have listed some things that Iran has refused to do.  But in the past, we saw that Iraq also refused to accept UN inspectors.  They had also sealed off some facilities.  But in the end, we saw that there were no nuclear weapons.  How can you be sure that you won’t make the same mistake?

AMBASSADOR SCHULTE:  That’s a very valid question, and I understand why you would ask that one.  Aspects of our intelligence were wrong with Iraq.  But Iran is different.  We are treating it differently in terms of the strategy, and their program is a very different type of program.  IAEA inspectors have seen the centrifuges that they are spinning, that they are working to produce enriched uranium in. IAEA inspectors, despite the best efforts of Iran to hide facilities like this, have been to Natans to see the enrichment facilities.  And it is not just the United States.  It is the International Atomic Energy Agency, with its inspectors, with its board of governors, who have found that Iran has lost international confidence in the peaceful nature of its program.  So this is not just a matter of what the United States is saying.  It is a matter of what many other countries are saying, and what the Agency itself has said.  Now I should point out that in the recent vote to report to the Security Council by the IAEA Board of Governors, there were 27 countries that voted to report Iran to the Security Council.  There were only 3 countries that voted no.  Of the 27 countries who voted yes, it was the countries of Europe, it was Japan, it was Australia, it was Korea, it was Russia, it was China, it was Brazil, it was India, it was Egypt, it was Yemen – all of these countries have grave concerns about the Iranian program, and all of these countries want Iran to re-earn the trust of the international community.

QUESTION:  Did you make any demands from the Turkish side at this stage?  When you said that we have the same concerns and we want to work cooperatively with the international community, what are the concrete demands that you have made of the Turkish side?  And what are the answers that you got?

AMBASSADOR SCHULTE:  I was not here to make requests or to make demands.  I was here to consult with a close ally, and to exchange views and talk about the strategy to achieve what we both want to achieve, which is a diplomatic settlement.  I think it is very important, as I said earlier, that Turkey, together with the United States, together with other countries of the international community, is making it very clear to the authorities in Iran that the course they are taking is the wrong course, and that they need to re-earn the confidence of the international community.  Thank you very much.