Alex Bigham from Foreign Policy Centre
Interviewed in London by Majid Khabazan
21 May 2006
An analyst at The Foreign Policy Centre (FPC) in London, Alex Bigham said, "the key to resolving the Iran nuclear crisis is looking at the security guarantees and this is the first time that there has been an offer of security package by the EU3."
Referring to the ongoing meetings of the EU3 about the so called new incentives to Iran the head of Research for the Iran Programme at the FPC added, "we acknowledged long time ago that Iran has a legitimate security concern in the region which must be addressed by the west."
On his return from Iran he spoke on Sunday and argued that the August 2005 EU3 package - which was offered to Iran and immediately rejected by Tehran -was not enough and covered technological and economic incentives only and the most important difference that the new package has is the security guaranties.
He, who along with his colleague Hugh Barnes, Director of Democracy of Conflict at the centre, spent recently some two weeks in Iran, hoped that Britain, France and Germany take the matter seriously.
"I hope the two sides take this opportunity, which is on the table now, seriously and reach to some kind of agreement because the other two options, of a military strike by the Americans or a nuclear race in the region, would be disastrous," Bigham added.
He argued that the difficult part is that the America is the real power that can provide guarantee in the region and Washington seems not ready for a direct dialogue with Iran.
(Iran tends to debate the issue of nuclear situation clearly more than what the Americans do,) he stressed.
The Foreign Policy Centre is a European think tank launched under the patronage of the British Prime Minister. The centre published recently a report entitled Understanding Iran in that it argued that the West's failure to engage successfully with Iran is due to a failure to understand the structure of the state and the background to recent political changes in the country.
It has also launched a research programme on Iran aiming to fulfil the lack of knowledge about Iran in the west of which the first visit to the country by its experts was part of this project.
By referring to his visit to Iran Bigham said, "what we came across on our trip is that our report was right and there is a potential and willing in Iranian side for dialogue and negotiation to settle the crisis."
Bigham said that the analysts in Iran spoke to a number of people from conservative and reformers sides who some were government advisors. He also mentioned that they spoke to representatives of civil societies, NGOs and a wide range of journalists while travelling to major cities of Iran except Ahwaz.
"In terms of people we met", Bigham added, "there is a national pride on nuclear achievements but we have to ask people what price they would be prepared to pay for serious nuclear programme?"
In answering to the question that why the west is not willing to openly recognise Iran’s legitimate right in uranium enrichment he said, "the problem is that not only EU misunderstands Iran but Iranians also misunderstand EU."
Bigham added, "Not any of EU3 argued that Iran does not have the right to nuclear power: FPC acknowledged, Jack Straw (former British foreign minister) acknowledged and British government has continued to acknowledge that right."
"It is really a question of the process being entirely open and the right kind of inspections regime being in place, but frankly, Iran was found in non compliance by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)," Bigham argued.
"We certainly argue that the west is guilty of double standards in the region" he said, "and we need to look again at the Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and look at its article six and force nuclear powers in the region such as Pakistan, Israel and India to comply with the international laws whether or not they are members of the NPT."
Bigham agreed that enrichment is clearly an important issue but added that there are as well other issues with regards to nuclear programme such as the issue of nuclear fuel cycle and the use of heavy water reactors the way in which that reprocessing can be directed for weapon purposes.
The think thank centre is going to publish a new report about the latest developments on Iran nuclear issue containing the come ups of the recent visit to Iran and new suggestions to both sides of the spectrum.
The interview was published with some changes by Fars News Agencis
