Category: World Service
Date: 09.02.2006
Printable version
The Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, has appealed to the Iranian people to persuade their government not to defy the United Nations over its nuclear activities.
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"There are ways in which the street, the Iranian people, the Iranian intellectual elite, can influence even this (Iranian) government," he told Â鶹Éç World Service in an exclusive interview.
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"I think it's very important they try to do so - and I say this as a friend of Iran who has devoted a significant part of the last five years trying to improve relations with Iran."
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The United Nations nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, has voted to report Iran to the Security Council over its nuclear activities. But it has put off any action until next month.
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"We have provided an important opportunity for Iran to shift into compliance - and I hope they take it," Mr Straw said.
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Later in the interview, he said: "Iran has a right to civil nuclear power programme... (but) the issue is Iran's behaviour - which has led to a high level of suspicion that alongside a civil nuclear power programme to make electricity, it is also running a secret programme to make a nuclear bomb."
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If Iran was to gain a "nuclear weapons capability", Mr Straw believed "the whole of that region would become more dangerous."
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He added: "Other countries in the Arab world would almost certainly feel provoked into gaining nuclear weapons - maybe Saudi Arabia, maybe Egypt - both of them together."
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Asked about what would happen if Iran continued to defy the UN, he said: "That depends on decisions made in the Security Council. But what I hope will happen is that Iran will realise the extent of international concern about it, will realise that it's in the interests of Iranians that Iran comes back into the international fold."
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And questioned about whether there was "even a threat of military action" to force Iran's compliance, he said: "I don't think it's on the agenda. Sanctions are a possibility, but we're not there yet... I'm very hopeful about a peaceful solution."
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The interview was conducted by Sadeq Saba in London for the Â鶹Éç World Service Persian and Pashto Service.
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A transcript is available on the right-hand side of this page.
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Â鶹Éç World Service Press Office
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