Iran’s former Foreign Minister said during one of his meetings with Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, he presented a proposal for “reaching an agreement with the group of P5+1 in nuclear talks,” and Ayatollah Khamenei accepted the proposal.
Manouchehr Mottaki, who served as Iran’s Foreign Minister from 2005 to 2010, and has now announced his candidacy for the Presidential elections in June, told Iran’s Supreme Leader in the last months of his service that “We are ready to reach an agreement with the P5+1.”
“[In this scenario] we also should make the West accept our rights and allow them to announce that they convinced Iran to accept their demands,” Mottaki said as he explained his plan to Ayatollah Khamenei.
The plan, apparently, proposed to accept of some of the P5+1 demands as a face-saving step for the western side.
Speaking in a conference of “Union of Islamic Societies of Independent Students” in Tehran, Mottaki said on Friday that he suggested Iran should declare the Supreme Leader’s Nuclear Fatwa (religious edict, declaring that the production, stockpiling, and use of nuclear weapons are all prohibited in Islam), and increase cooperation with the IAEA, despite all of their sabotages.
“The Supreme leader accepted my plan, [then] we discussed it with President Ahmadinejad and [following his order] a 4- member team was formed,” he said. “but unfortunately I was dismissed after a few months,” Mottaki said.
On 13 December 2010, Mottaki was dismissed as foreign minister – while on an official tour of Africa – by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
President Ahmadinejad appointed the country’s then top nuclear official, Ali Akbar Salehi, to replace Mr Mottaki.
“We were [running] in a marathon, we had to manage sanctions and perform our policies simultaneously,” He said about his serving period as Iran’s Foreign Minister.
“On the nuclear issue since 2005 we have arrived at a new battle, we reached self-sufficiency in uranium enrichment and consequently are facing fresh pressures from the West,” Mottaki asserted saying “…for the one who has the upper hand, retreating will make him the loser.”
Iran’s Supreme National Security Council formulates the country’s nuclear policy. The nuclear policies formulated by the council would become effective if they are confirmed by the Supreme Leader. The Secretary of the council, Saeed Jalili acts as the chief nuclear negotiator of Iran.
Latest round of talks between Iran and the P5+1 group held April 5th and 6th in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
