Iranian Nuclear Program Director
'We Will Not Yield'
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visits the Natanz uranium enrichment facilities in 2008: "We are prepared for the worst."
SPIEGEL: Mr. Salehi, when you were appointed head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran to run your country's nuclear program in July, you declared your intention to work for a "restoration of trust." What signs can you show your counterparts in the West of your willingness to compromise?
Salehi: My taking office is not tied to any change of course in our nuclear policy. Fundamental decisions are made by revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. But there's a certain amount of latitude. I immediately made good on my promise in two ways: We are allowing inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna to inspect the nearly completed heavy water reactor at Arak, and to improve monitoring of the uranium enriching facility in Natanz. That shows we are interested in good cooperation.
SPIEGEL: Both are long overdue obligations that Iran has finally complied with.
Salehi: That is how you see it. But we are sticking strictly to the work schedule we drew up with the IAEA. There these items were still left unfinished on the list, and now they've been checked off.
SPIEGEL: For the international community, the most explosive item remains disputed. The uranium enrichment in Natanz, with which you close the loop of nuclear production, could create the raw material for a nuclear bomb.
Salehi: It is our right to make low-enriched uranium for civilian purposes. And we will not forfeit that right -- no Iranian government will do that, under any circumstances.
SPIEGEL: The deadline the West set for you runs out at the end of the month. If Iran doesn't agree to the offer being made by the United States and Europe, your country will have to prepare itself for intensified sanctions.
Salehi: Do you want to threaten us? You insinuate again and again that we want nuclear weapons, but repeating it doesn't make it any more accurate. You and the entire West, you're imagining things.
SPIEGEL: Iranian opposition members in exile exposed the existence of the enrichment facility in Natanz, still under construction, in 2002, while you were Iran's chief delegate to the IAEA in Vienna. Highly enriched uranium was found in the centrifuges.
Salehi: We would still have had plenty of time back then to register the Natanz facility. And the highly enriched uranium in the centrifuges originated from the facilities from which we acquired the used equipment.
SPIEGEL: On the international nuclear black market.
Salehi: Yes, we may have made some mistakes. But have a look at the IAEA's annual reports. They document other countries' mistakes as well. Those, however, are overlooked. Only we are punished for these mistakes, in order to bring us in line politically.
SPIEGEL: The heavy water reactor in Arak doesn't make much sense in terms of energy policy, but it may soon yield weapons-grade plutonium. By developing long-range missiles that could be adequate for nuclear armaments and by accumulating more than 1,400 kilograms (3,000 pounds) of low enriched uranium that, if highly enriched, is already enough to build at least one bomb
Salehi: ... go ahead and continue. We are a sovereign country with a policy of autonomy, in terms of our energy policy as well.
SPIEGEL: ... you are truly provoking further sanctions.
Salehi: That is not our intention. And that is why we have just been demonstrating our willingness to cooperate.
SPIEGEL: Your government fosters mistrust precisely through a "lack of cooperation," as it was described in the IAEA inspectors' most recent report.
Salehi: That refers to documents that allegedly came from Iran and were supposed to substantiate our ambitions for a nuclear bomb. But those are forgeries, as we've already explained.
SPIEGEL: IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei says those plans "fit and make sense."
Salehi: But that is no proof of their authenticity. You're creating an image of Iran for yourself which has nothing to do with reality.
SPIEGEL: The presidential election on June 12 showed that, if anything, your government is the one creating its own reality. Ahmadinejad's victory is extremely controversial internationally as well as in Iran.
Salehi: Millions of people support this government, which was elected in a democratic process, although conflicts and differences of opinion are certainly part of it.
SPIEGEL: Perhaps Iran's leaders can stifle opposition within the country. But the West will continue with its insistence on the nuclear issue. The International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna also wants to speak with Mohsen Fakhrizadeh-Mahabadi, who is supposed to be the scientist responsible for the nuclear plans the inspectors have seen.
Salehi: Each time a question is answered, it's followed by another demand. For the West, the issue is not about our nuclear program. It's about making Iran docile.