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Disarmament DocumentationBack to Disarmament Documentation 'I do not happen to think that military action in this situation would be appropriate', UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, January 16, 2006Straw Interview on Iran Nuclear Programme, January 16, 2006. TRANSCRIPT OF AN INTERVIEW WITH FOREIGN SECRETARY, JACK STRAW, ON THE C4 NEWS. INTERVIEWER: Well just before we came on air I was down at the Foreign Office too, talking to the Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. And I asked him why despite growing concern no concrete action has yet been agreed on the question of curbing Iran's nuclear programme. JACK STRAW: Well the first thing is to get a consensus on serious concern, I mean the international community it's not been split on the issue of Iran but it's not been of one mind either. So I think that as a result of the Iranian's very unreasonable actions on the nuclear dossier and also the very extreme statements from President Ahmadinejad on other issues, particularly the Holocaust and the, the right of Israel to exist, there is now stronger and more serious concern across the board internationally. That has helped us and it is more likely to put Iran in the dock. We have told our partners that we're calling a board of governors meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency for the 2nd and 3rd of February. INTERVIEWER: What's your evidence that Iran really does want to build a bomb? JACK STRAW: We haven't got hard evidence that they're determined to build a bomb and I've never pretended that we have. What we have first of all is absolutely categorical evidence that the Iranians in defiance of their very clear obligations under the Non Proliferation Treaty were secretly developing nuclear capability to manufacture fuel. Secondly we have evidence which has subsequently emerged, for example, that they received manuals showing how to build casings for a bomb and for nothing else and the fact that they've been experimenting with plutonium and polonium. So the evidence is circumstantial, the Iranians say we have no malign or military intent. What we say is, because you have been declared, and they have, non compliant with your safeguards obligations the onus is now on you to satisfy the rest of the world that you provide us with objective guarantees that you are not going down the route of a dual use for your fuel cycle. INTERVIEWER: Today you've used the phrase of Iran that they have a history of concealment and deception yet that is precisely the same phrase that was used of Iraq by the Prime Minister in February 2003, isn't that your problem, basically nobody believes you? JACK STRAW: Well of course it's a difficulty, there's no question about that, I mean had the evidence turned out on the ground in Iraq to be the evidence we thought was there, and I thought was there, of course the climate would be different. We've been very careful, I've been extremely careful in not pretending to people that which can not be proved here, and perfectly open, but I have to say that our suspicions are shared across the international community... INTERVIEWER: But it doesn't surely change the problem we now have as to how to deal with it because surely the emperor has been shown to have no clothes, you can not attack, you can not seriously impose sanctions because of the oil price, basically there's not a lot we can do? JACK STRAW: I'm not, I'm not sure about (indistinct), and let me say regardless of, of what had or hadn't been found in Iraq I do not happen to think that military action in this situation would be appropriate. I mean as President Bush's spokesman has said Iran is not Iraq ... INTERVIEWER: Although McCain, Senator McCain has said we must retain military action as the final possibility. JACK STRAW: American administrators, Presidents and Senators always say that but in the real world the truth is that military action is not on anybody's agenda. And although Iran does pose a problem unlike Iraq Iran has not invaded two of its neighbours, shows no sign of doing so, nor has it launched missile attacks on five of its neighbours. INTERVIEWER: Briefly what's the time table and, and what indeed is the worst that can be done to Iran? JACK STRAW: Well the time table is that this will go before the board of governors on the 2nd and 3rd of February, there'll then be a resolution, which I expect, although I can't say for certain, will include referral, maybe under some conditions, maybe not, to the Security Council. The matter will then at an appropriate moment go on to the Security Council agenda ... INTERVIEWER: And the worst the Security Council can do? JACK STRAW: Well, I don't want to get in to that, what we hope that as a result of this and other diplomatic pressure that the Iranians will come back to the negotiating table, which is where we want them to be, and will recognise the good faith of the European Three. We really did put a huge amount of effort in to an offer we made to them last August. We'd already warmed up those negotiations. I had by ensuring that the US lifted blocks on providing them with aircraft spare parts and the block on the beginnings of their negotiations for World Trade Organization negotiations. Two very important decisions made by Condoleezza Rice at our request. They need normalisation of relations with the rest of the world, the EU E3 negotiations offer a route through but it has to be through serious grown up negotiations. Source: UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office, http://www.fco.gov.uk. © 2005 The Acronym Institute. |