thanks for being with us at half past the hour and. a quick look at your headlines over two dozen people have been killed and many more injured in a double bombing against security compounds in the heart of the syrian capital it's a. new one to bring the conflict to a peaceful resolution to the man found guilty of last year's terror attack in minsk is executed despite calls to reconsider that heard from europe where human rights

groups condemn the sentence. marches and zogby you see soldiers heralded as heroes on labia and are rally enjoying top level support but triggering public outrage. with western nations imposing more sanctions the standoff with iran over its a legit nuclear program is intensifying archie talks to the iranian ambassador to the russian federation to get her friends take on the situation and spotlight after a very short break. hello again or welcome to spotlight the interview shall in politics i'm now doing

out wednesday my guest on the program is that is that suggested. to strike or not to strike that is the question dominating the middle east like the standoff with iran concerning its nuclear program is getting tough with israel prepares to attack in a month or two and urges washington to do the same the worst two countries are in world pascale yet but keep imposing more and more economic sanctions on. a new round of talks on the ready to ship is due in april and as said by the u.s. face sex trade is the last shot for terror as to avoid a war the world media mostly highlights the worst unfortunately well what's taken as a is terror and ready for war we're asking to remain ambassador to russia for the ration to resign sajad to. iran's economy has been hit hard by

international sanctions but now the stakes are high and the u.s. mass which reportedly sent in tehran to russia mediation is a strong use if the next negotiations fail woman's world com and talks will be held sometime in april when iran who once again have to prove its nuclear program is peaceful tehran's reluctance to call great with the international atomic energy agency continues to inspire an international mistrust several sets of talks with the six world powers britain china france russia the united states and germany have so far done little to change iran's hard line stance on its enrichment program tehran's refusal to allow inspectors into the military base. porch has become a focus for concern. is the most strident it is threatening.

three. irrationals you thanks very much welcome welcome to the show first of all i want to ask you about the economic situation in iran today is living through a difficult set of sanctions imposed by the west in january you are well in the state finance institutions are being carted by the west so what consequences does it have on iran's economy and how the people there. in the name of god the merciful the compassionate and i would also like to greet you and your viewers and thank you for organizing this interview. for the past thirty three years that have elapsed since our revolution we have been under pressure and sanctions from the united states. and we have learned to turn the threats into opportunities. when the revolution first happened the mastic production accounted

for only five percent and we imported the other ninety five percent of the goods we needed in exchange for our oil revenues. to dean we produce more than ninety percent of what we need and we only some heavy machinery. because it would be economically unfeasible to manufacture it and around. in other words economic pressure prompted us to develop our internal capacity. as you know the ease let me create probably cover around launched its third satellites recently missed and on through. also we have our own production in various advanced areas so like biotechnology nanotechnology software development information technology we even explored some of

those products. so i can say that sanctions have turned us into a strong advanced and successful country in many areas of the economy and instead of merely importing with good solution we are now a thought a little different country. well you do sound pretty diplomatic really also sound optimist at the same time they nearly elected parliament in your country as harshly criticized. for the state of economy does that mean from your point of view as a diplomat that your country may try to soften the relations with the world in order to improve the economic situation. and if there's never been our desire to have poor relations with other countries which in fact i think

it is the west was putting pressure on various countries seeking to isolate us of those we have always been working to develop good relations both economically and politically with our neighbors. and today we cooperate well with many countries of us. and you mentioned the fact that the parliament is not happy. with iran is an ambitious country. sixty percent or people are under thirty years of age. and we expect that sunni iran will be much the top twenty nations of the world. so because of these high expectations people put pressure on the parliament and the parliament puts pressure on the government but in reality if you take a look at statistics. you will see that despite the global economic crisis and high

unemployment wait our government has performed quite well and. the e.u. speaking about the support from many countries what about russia do you think do you consider russia to play a special role for iran this international way shows can russia. be an effective mediator say on the upcoming april talks. who are several factors that have had a negative effect on our relations in recent years. for example the russian government relied on false information it received from the us and israel. and it was under the impression that iran was developing nuclear weapons. being iran's neighbor russia wanted to use international mechanisms to put in now

those efforts that. fortunately i can see about a year ago russia became skeptical about the information it receives from the west . recently russia has been sending delegations to iran and iran's russia and in this respect the situation has improved. and many russian officials now say that there is no reason to believe that overran a single developing nuclear weapons. western pressure and sanctions are a large leap politicized us their purpose is to influence to the people of iran. we owe. the russian foreign minister a visit to the states last week here. his talks with the. trade states this clinton she asked the lover off

two to two to tell that to translate to the iranian side that talks maybe a last chance to avoid a military attack how scary is that. people. of course we have often received similar threats over the past thirty years. on two occasions so i think they even had a specific detail for attacking iran. should what we know and americans know that throughout the five thousand years of iran's he's throwing people of iran have always defended their country they're really two separate fires their allies for their homeland has friends from before. i think such threats are intended

mostly for domestic consumption the whole their purpose is not to intimidate us. but if you visit iran today actually you will see crown so if people in marketplaces shopping. this is because on the march twenty first we will celebrate new year's i mean this is this is the first day of the year in the iranian calendar . of course many other countries that will celebrate and i wus as well. so people pay little or no attention to those speculations and that's the way he's always been. that says it is that sajad the iranian ambassador to russia spoke like we'll be back shortly after a break so stay with us deborah. this

respectable british gentleman's choice was. between jackets and those whiskey. a much younger wife. and more than twenty years of intelligence service in profits of the soviet union. filled his choice on forty. the. russians would be so much brighter if you live on some money from funniest impression. he's from star totty don't

come. if. it is easy to look it's. easy to feel. some. six. ft. five. asked.

to. be a. welcome back to spotlight we're not in just a reminder that my guest on the show today is that is that sajad the iranian ambassador to russia and your excellency we've started talking about the april round of negotiations of iran and the group of six do you think a compromise is possible. well i think that he thought only of france in the five plus one group were to observe international arrangements and moral principles in dealing with. a solution would be easy to find. but unfortunately in the past we have seen the western nations

internationally use the nuclear issue as a pretext for exerting pressure on iraq. i will give you an example at some point the west made a proposition to ram suggesting that instead of producing our own three point five percent enriched uranium we could acquire twenty percent enriched uranium from that stuff but that was seen as a very promising confidence building measure with help from turkey and brazil we dock to do resolutions in tehran and issued a declaration signaling our agreement. we considered such an exchange perfectly feasible and quite rational. however some ten days later we saw yet another anti uranium resolution adopted by the un security council. so there's

therefore the past conduct of the west makes us doubt whether the gene merely seek to address their own security concerns or whether they are still pursuing the same political agenda they have maintained toward iran for the past thirty years since these lawmaker evolution. if it is a matter of trust of reach maybe maybe they can see it all allowing the inspectors or the e.a.a. to visit the pot of chili something something that you haven't been. given to. denying a winter maybe this may be a test of trusts and i discussing that. oh yes the i.e. visited the porch inside twice in two thousand and five should foley shane and then deputy director general of the i.e.e.e. a human in unst at the time that the cartoon controversy was now history.

so we suggested that we jointly develop a project called a certain framework for settling on the remaining issues and then deal with them in a package. are you your representatives came to around twice to deliberate with us on the framework. step one of the draft brought the cole was a visit to port chain. but upon instructions from director general amano if you keep i.e. envoys requested that they be admitted to the porch in a facility parar it just signing the product. we found it similar to you asking for an advance payment for a real estate with no purchase contract signed in that this is illogical you have to sign

a contract first and then as step one onto the contract the buyer me forward in advance payment. we offered the i.a.e.a. an opportunity to visit a fortune while inspecting this c.d.o. from our you've on where mr amano had claimed a suspicious explosion and he is reported to be a board of governess. we said that we would provide in i.e. team with a plane to visit from our involvement and then subject to signing the product called we would make or chain vailable for inspection to. unfortunately instead of that we saw false statements and propaganda circulated alleging that iran was denying access to a porch in. i'd like to emphasize that this was initially a document proposed by the agency we had had our own traffic but we read it to

go with their proposal nevertheless following instructions from director general amano. go she refused to sign the product and went back to vienna before it was even finalized. this all sounds very diplomatic they're very political but well let's be commonsense listen. the supreme leader ayatollah khomeini he once said that a nuclear weapon is anti islamic and i think you really meant it well as far as i understand islam in your part of the world the government of an islamic country could never do something against the will of allah well then why you this question why can't you believe the world make the world trust you what's what's the problem

i mean if you're going to do that the way is this. i think that before we answer such a question the p five plus one member states should answer it to you. we have signed the nonproliferation trudi. i.a.e.a. inspectors have spent a total of four thousand man hours touring various sites in iran we admitted them and we also installed surveillance cameras at media water facilities in iran's political military and a religious leader. have stated officially that our defense doctrine does not provide for nuclear weapons. why is it that other nations who call themselves the international community do not trust us and what more can a nation do you know that the reasoning prompted by the united states

is this same as telling a person you are a limited lee f. free man but since we have doubts about. the why don't you stay in prison for a while. we know you have committed no crimes and but we consider you suspicious so any go and we'll see later. that is how the west treats us they see we are suspicious. meanwhile both russian and western intelligence services have admitted they have no evidence of iran's alleged nuclear weapons project. ole arraigning facility is that the i.a.e.a. had an ounce dubious our relevant agencies have provided them access to the. inspectors came onsite with their equipment and samples if you produce

uranium in a reached beyond a specific benchmark there will be detectable traces left for decades to come no such traces have been spotted in iran. therefore i believe it isn't iran who should answer that question. we have an impression we need clearance to be is merely a political instrument in this case. you must have heard claims that the iranian government has no legitimacy and no support with the people. meanwhile we marked tenth anniversary of these lemon grove aleutian on february eleventh this year and all across iran there were millions of people parading in the streets in celebration of. we've had a parliamentary election which i'm sure did theory cause i vote for turnout. as you see the people of iran manifest their interest and participation in governance

through various modalities and yet the west keeps spinning bill lack of legitimacy and merits of. this same goes for human rights. we could name a few nations to day that are great friends with the united states and they have no elections whatsoever. we see countries invaded by foreign troops that suppress the local population just because there is a u.s. military base where they are. the majority of local citizens face oppression and have their rights violated merely because there are american interests at stake. and i think we're all being misled by the double standards and the trickery employed by the united states in its race for supremacy. you're talking about these countries so countries what are these countries e.a.

talking about can you name them oh yes i can name them it's the united states great britain and france. these are the three nations to pursue their political objectives while peddling them is the demands of the international. communities. through political pressure and the law they seek to use international institutions to impose their will on other countries you know you can see for yourself the crimes these three nations have committed in libya. forty thousand libyans were killed by airstrikes launched on the predicts of protests in civilians they have accused them or more of the da feo killing a total of four thousand people while countering their rebellion but what about the forty thousand they've murdered themselves. in syria you can

seen these nations attempting to impose their will on the people similarly using international institutions as an instrument. i know this. speculation but still what do you think is the driving force behind israel's will to go to war with iran your nuclear program your move through program or your support to hamas and hezbollah. what's the reason for it i actually think these rallies are perfectly aware that iran is not pursuing nuclear weapons even if we had nuclear warheads we would not be able to use them considering the demands nuclear arsenals held by the united states and britain and france. we believe israel's attitude stems from our end non-recognition of the zionist regime and its occupation of palestine

for this we consider israel to be a racist state similar to the our part hard regime in south africa as mean and likewise it will also fall sunday because such regimes are essentially contrary to human nature. the launching of global development and justice spells oblivion for the israeli received. thank you thank you very much your excellency for being with us in just the reminded of my guest on the show today was and is that sajad the iranian ambassador to russia and that's it for the hour from all of us here if you have your sales spotlight wanted if you want me to interview someone specific you can always give me a call or drop me a line that i would look at up if you need that area and let's talk life interactive it will be back with more than candles on what's going on in and outside russia until then stay on r.t.

and take a. break. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so for life you think you understand it and then you've lived something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm trying hard welcome to the big picture.

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