Region | Iran
Moussavi against suspension of nuclear plan
Ahmadinejad's rival for presidential election insists programme will not be used to produce weapons.
- By Najmeh Bozorgmehr, Financial Times
- Published: 22:56 April 14, 2009
- Student supporters of Mir Hussain Moussavi, a leading reformist candidate in the upcoming Iranian presidential elections, react to his speech, in Ilam, on Monday. An architect and painter, Moussavi served as prime minister in the 1980s during the Iran-Iraq war.
- Image Credit: AP
Tehran: Iranian presidential hopeful Mir Hussain Moussavi has ruled out suspension of the country's controversial uranium enrichment but insisted that he would work to provide 'guarantees' that Tehran would not divert its nuclear programme to weapons use.
In his first interview with the international media, one of the leading rivals to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in the June election, told the Financial Times that Iran had a "bad experience" with suspension. It had agreed to a suspension between 2003 and 2005 in the hope that it would build confidence in the peaceful nature of its programme, he said.
But the move "turned into a tool to deprive Iran of having access to nuclear technology," he argued, referring to European powers' insistence at the time that Iran should suspend indefinitely its experiments.
A self-effacing architect and painter, Moussavi served as prime minister in the 1980s, during the Iran-Iraq war, but has edicated much of his time in the past two decades to the arts. The 69-year-old's candidacy has attracted international attention, partly because he is backed by Mohammad Khatami, the ormer reformist president.
Khatami withdrew his own candidacy to try to unite reformist ranks behind Moussavi. Cleric Mehdi Karroubi remains in the race and could yet split reformist votes. But Moussavi's challenge is attracting the support of young Iranians, who make up the majority of the population.
The comments of Moussavi suggest that Iran's nuclear ambitions and its dispute over them could be little affected by the June poll.
Iran has long insisted that it is ready to provide ssurances about the peaceful nature of its nuclear programme yet has not co-operated fully with the investigations of the UN's nuclear watchdog. Foreign policy, moreover, is in the hands of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader.
Moussavi's aides say that he does not envision radical changes but is hoping to temper the radicalism of the regime under Ahmadinejad.
Analysts and diplomats, however, argue that a less onfrontational figure at the presidency would facilitate nuclear talks, particularly at a time when the US is shifting ran policy and moving towards engagement.
The Obama administration last week said it would from now on participate in nuclear discussions that have been held in the past between Iran and other world powers, and Iran has welcomed the move.
Sitting in a conference room at the Art Centre in Tehran, Moussavi acknowledged that "the role of the supreme leader is very determining". But he said "decisions on nuclear technology efinitely need to be based on thorough consensus at the national level".
Moussavi has sought to appeal to reformists and conservatives. Some reformists, however, say he will not go far enough in pressing their agenda and are backing Karroubi. On the other hand, some conservatives alienated by Ahmadinejad are said to be ready to support Moussavi.
One of the conservatives' concerns is the attitude of the supreme leader, who clashed with Moussavi while serving as president of the Islamic Republic during the 1980s. In an apparent effort to allay the concerns, Moussavi said he met with Khamenei last week in what he described as "very good and positive" talks.
If he were elected president in June, he added, he would try to make his policies closer to the views of the supreme leader.
Another constituency that needs reassurance is the business community, which accuses Ahmadinejad of undermining a private sector reeling from the impact of international sanctions.
Moussavi is remembered as the leftist politician who ordered the destruction of the chamber of commerce building in the 1980s after businessmen refused to accommodate war refugees. But Moussavi said he did not recall the incident, and stressed that he believed the country's problems could not be resolved without the private sector.
Multi-faceted: Painter to politician
- Mir Hussain Moussavi: Born in 1941 in Khameneh village, north-west Iran.
- Graduated in architecture from Tehran and Shahid Beheshti universities.
- Ran a state-owned newspaper and was briefly foreign minister, then prime minister from 1981-89.
- He is now an inactive member of the Expediency Council and the High Cultural Revolution Council.
- Since 1999 his main official job has been head of the state-owned Art Centre.
- He is a painter himself with 180 works over 40 years and 11 exhibitions.
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