Russian Analyst: West’s Anti-Iran Claims Entirely Propagation War

Tehran, Nov 20, IRNA – Chairman of the Russian Defense Ministry's Public Council says the West has launched a propaganda war against Iran and that the false allegations over Tehran’s nuclear energy program are part of that war. Igor Korotchenko, who is also editor-in-chief of the Russian National Defense magazine made the comments in an interview with the Voice of Russia radio channel on Tuesday. “Officials in Tehran have publicly announced that Iran’s nuclear program has a peaceful nature and inspections by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of the country’s nuclear facilities confirm this fact,” Korotchenko said. He further emphasized that the “reports and information provided by IAEA should be considered the basis for judging the nature of Iran's nuclear program, not comments made by the US and Israeli officials.” Referring to false allegations made by Israeli officials against Iran’s peaceful nuclear energy program, Korotchenko criticized Tel Aviv’s 'double standards' on the nuclear issue, saying that intelligence agencies of different countries have confirmed that Zionist regime holds a nuclear arsenal. The United States, Israel and some of their allies have accused Iran of pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program. Iran rejects the allegation, arguing that as a signatory to Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of International Atomic Energy Agency, it is entitled to develop and acquire nuclear technology for peaceful purposes. IAEA has conducted numerous inspections of Iran's nuclear facilities but has never found any evidence showing that Iran's civilian nuclear program has been diverted toward military objectives. According to an alleged report by the IAEA, which was released on Friday, Iran has increased centrifuges installed at the Fordow fuel enrichment plant, near the city of Qom. Washington and its Western allies accuse Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program, while they have never presented any corroborative evidence to substantiate their allegations. Iran denies the charges and insists that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only. Tehran stresses that the country has always pursued a civilian path to provide power to the growing number of Iranian population, whose fossil fuel would eventually run dry. Despite the rules enshrined in the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) entitling every member state, including Iran, to the right of uranium enrichment, Tehran is now under four rounds of UN Security Council sanctions and the unilateral western embargos for turning down West's calls to give up its right of uranium enrichment. Tehran has dismissed West's demands as politically tainted and illogical, stressing that sanctions and pressures merely consolidate Iranians' national resolve to continue the path. Tehran has repeatedly said that it considers its nuclear case closed as it has come clean of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)'s questions and suspicions about its past nuclear activities. A 2008 report of the IAEA by the then Director-General, Mohamed ElBaradei, thanked Iran's honest cooperation in removing ambiguities about its past activities and confirmed that Iran has answered all the six outstanding questions of the world body about the nuclear material and activities that it had had in the past./end