“Major nuclear deal” is not dream

To resolve its concerns on Iran's nuclear programme the West has to separate technical nuclear issues from other political-security subjects, Trend Agency's Iran Service Department Chief Dalga Khatinoglu told Mehr news Agency during an interview on Tuesday.

The success of the Istanbul talks held between Iran and the permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany (P5+1) could mean the nuclear issue is resolvable in case if the sides can focus on Iran's nuclear activities, without politicizing them, Khatinoglu said.

In a rare case, both the West and Iran recognized nuclear talks over Iran's nuclear program, that had been suspended for 15 months because of lacking mutual understanding between the parties, as "positive". The talks were held on April 14 in Istanbul.

According to Khatinoglu's pointview, after Iran's complete cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), lifting some of the sanctions against Iran would be reasonable and signing a major agreement is also possible.

"That would show Iran it won't be attacked by the West," Khatinoglu believes.

He added that human rights, Iran's support of Hezbollah or other regional groups and irrelevant subjects should never interfere in Western countries' efforts to solve its problems with Iran's nuclear program. The failure to do so has only deepened the rift.

If Western countries accept Iran's right to enrichment under the Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and its additional protocol, then Iran can cooperate with them even better.

"Just because Iran may reach a technical point in its nuclear program that gives it the capacity to build nuclear weapons doesn't mean it will do so," he said.

According to Azerbaijani analyst, officially accepting Iran's legitimate right to peaceful nuclear activities lets it pursue its goals like other countries who have nuclear programs but don't produce weapons including Japan and South Korea.

Khatingoglu said that to resolve the matter, there is no alternative other than increase the IAEA supervisions of Iran's nuclear facilities and deeper technical cooperation between the Agency and the Islamic Republic.

"More inspections will keep the nuclear issue from getting tangled in political issues and a technical approach to the problem will replace the political one," he said.

"That's necessary because Iran's nuclear program has passed the point of no return and stopping it is impossible in practical terms," Khatinoglu added.

The P5+1 spearheaded the diplomatic efforts to persuade Iran to limit its nuclear program, which Iran say is purely peaceful while UN and Western leaders suspect of military purposes.

So far, The UNSC has adopted four rounds of sanctions, inside of the U.S. and the European Union's tightened sanctions imposed to Iran, intended to halt Iran's nuclear program which is suspected to have military dimensions.


Dalga Khatinoglu /Trend/