Duped Europe

The man who led 's nuclear negotiations with Britain, France and Germany revealed "duped" the European powers while playing for time to work on its secret nuclear program.

Speaking to a closed meeting of leading Islamic clerics and academics, Hassan Rowhani said:

He boasted that while talks were taking place in Teheran, was able to complete the installation of equipment for conversion of yellowcake - a key stage in the nuclear fuel process - at its Isfahan plant but at the same time convince European diplomats that nothing was afoot.

"From the outset, the Americans kept telling the Europeans, 'The ians are lying and deceiving you and they have not told you everything.' The Europeans used to respond, 'We trust them'," he said.

[. . .]

He told his audience: "When we were negotiating with the Europeans in Teheran we were still installing some of the equipment at the Isfahan site. There was plenty of work to be done to complete the site and finish the work there. In reality, by creating a tame situation, we could finish Isfahan."

The so-called Agreed Statement published after the Foreign Ministers of Britain, France and Germany reached agreement with on measures aimed at the settlement of all outstanding IAEA issues with regard to the 's secret nuclear program stated:

The ian Government has decided to engage in full co-operation with the IAEA to address and resolve, through full transparency, all requirements and outstanding issues of the Agency, and clarify and correct any possible failures and deficiencies within the IAEA.

now admits that the October 21, 2003 agreement with the Europeans was nothing more than a ruse to buy time for the mullahocracy to continue to pursue its secret nuclear program, whit had successfully concealed for two decades.

According to the Telegraph, Rowhani described the 's quandary in September 2003 when the IAEA had demanded a "complete picture" of 's nuclear activities:

"The dilemma was if we offered a complete picture, the picture itself could lead us to the UN Security Council," he said. "And not providing a complete picture would also be a violation of the resolution and we could have been referred to the Security Council for not implementing the resolution."

The ian solution to this dilemma was to lie and cheat.

When asks the world to believe that its nuclear program is not a weapons program, the world should remember that now boasts that its response to the revelation of its secret nuclear program was to dupe Europe with lies.