New Obstacle for Agreement

16 February 2014 | 15:25 Code : 1928770 From Other Media General category

Fararu.com’s interview with Davoud Hermidas Bavand, a university professor and expert on international affairs

-Now that the big European companies have expressed their interest in being present in Iran, it seems that the next negotiation between Iran and the P5+1, at least in its primary stages, would be about the lifting of sanctions and the creation of a new atmosphere in Iran so that the Europeans would be able to invest in Iran.

-The Security Council resolutions against Iran, particularly the third and fourth resolutions, are not limited to the issue of nuclear technology, but also include Iran’s missile system and even its conventional defense system. Therefore, the issue of Iran’s missiles has been considered in the resolutions of the Security Council.

-But the issue of human rights is mentioned in the resolution which has been adopted by the US House of Representatives and is now suspended in the US Senate wherein the lifting of sanctions is dependent upon the observation of human rights and not supporting international terrorism alongside the resolution of the nuclear issue.

-Therefore, the human rights issues have been mentioned in the recent resolutions of the US Congress which have not yet been ratified by the Senate and the US President.

- Under such conditions, if Iran frees some of the political and ideological prisoners who have been arrested during the past five years, it will somewhat balance the atmosphere, but this has not happened yet.

- In the Geneva Agreement, there is no mention of ballistic missiles and human rights issues but some of these issues have been stated in the Security Council resolutions.

- In my opinion, negotiations at this stage will be more about economic issues and the lifting of the sanctions which are related to these issues.

-There is the possibility that the US would want to talk about such matters in the negotiations but the fact is that Iran’s position is somehow weaker and Iran is now under exceptional conditions, thus, it must attempt to accept some of the issues which are demanded by the other side.

-Of course, it is possible that such a measure would be faced with pandemonium inside the country but there is no other solution, for the failure of the negotiation process could have undesirable consequences.