'Iran’s Nuclear Programme Is For Peaceful Purposes Only,' Says Envoy Mohseni Fard

An overwhelming number of Iranians want the country to build a nuclear bomb. However, the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, remains firmly opposed to it, said Mohseni Fard, the 60-year-old Consul-General of Iran, while addressing a select group of journalists at the consulate on Tuesday. He clarified that Iran's nuclear programme is fundamentally aimed at peaceful applications such as medicine and agriculture. Fard added that, as a sovereign nation, Iran cannot be legitimately prevented from developing nuclear facilities for peaceful purposes.

Fard said most of the fissile material from different facilities were moved out before the U.S. bombed them. Asked about Bushehr, where the bulk of nuclear fissile material was stockpiled in the mountains, he replied that that facility was left untouched by the Americans. 

Fard said even though the U.S. B 20 bombers did inflict damage as part of Operation Midnight Hammer at the three nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan they can be rebuilt in a few months. ``They tried to destroy the physical nuclear infrastructure, but they cannot take away the knowledge that our scientists had gained over the years," he added.

Asked how the Mossad was able to eliminate top nuclear scientists of Iran, Fard alleged that officials of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), who had interacted with Iranian nuclear scientists during inspection of the N-sites, had leaked information to Israel. ``We got documentary proof from Tel Aviv for this," he claimed. He said 25 % of the IAEA's time was focussed on the facilities in Iran.

Fard did not rule out the possibility of the revival of the conflict ``since Tel Aviv was certain to pursue its strategy of a greater Israel." 

When pointed out that the October 7 Hamas attack on Israelis was at the root of the current crisis, Fard replied that Tehran only extended moral support to Hamas and Hezbollah since they were fighting for justice. He said a permanent solution to the Middle East situation was to create a state of Palestine where Jews, Muslims and Christians, who were followers of Abrahamic religions, can live in peace.

 He said Iran, which has pulled out of IAEA, was totally disappointed with the biased view of the international agency. He said Tehran will rejoin IAEA only if it is satisfied that the latter will conduct itself in a neutral manner. 

Fard said even as talks were going on with Washington, the latter decided to violate Iran's sovereignty and bombed its nuclear installations. He said there was a huge trust deficit now and it is for the U.S. to prove its credibility. At present the Iranian government is justifiably sceptical of the intentions of the Trump administration. He said Washington and Tel Aviv were working in tandem, but world opinion was overwhelmingly against the Netanyahu government which indulged in war mongering.