INTERVIEW WITH IRANIAN AMBASSADOR TO MEXICO AND

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 05 SAN SALVADOR 000588

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DUBAI FOR IRAN RPO, DEPARTMENT FOR ISN, IO, AND NEA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/15/2017
TAGS: PREL PGOV PINR ES IZ MX NU VE IR KNNP
SUBJECT: INTERVIEW WITH IRANIAN AMBASSADOR TO MEXICO AND
NICARAGUA

REF: A. STATE 19372

B. STATE 23001

Classified By: Ambassador Charles L. Glazer for Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (C) SUMMARY AND COMMENT: On March 11, leading El
Salvador daily La Prensa Grafica published an interview in
its Sunday magazine with Mohammed Roohi Sefat, Iranian
Ambassador to Mexico (also accredited to Nicaragua),about
his opinions of the Salvadoran Armed Forces presence in Iraq.
The interview was held in Mexico City, and while focusing
much attention on El Salvador, it may also give clues about
Iran's intentions in the rest of the region. The article is
also interesting in the context that the GOES has recently
shared its concerns about expanding Iranian influence in
Central America via its relations with the new government in
Managua. GOES officials say they feel particularly
vulnerable to the dangers of this expanding Iranian influence
because of the presence of the Cuscatlan Battalion in Al Kut,
near the Iran-Iraq border. Moreover, the GOES has shared
information with post concerning the travel of Salvadoran
Shiites to Iran, via Caracas, to receive training.
Ambassador Sefat was highly critical of El Salvador's foreign
policy, and also claimed that Iran is not aligning itself
with leftist governments in Latin America, but rather
countries that seek to be "independent." END SUMMARY AND
COMMENT.


2. (U) The following is an unofficial translation of the
article done by post:

"EL SALVADOR CAN'T HAVE ANY REAL INTEREST IN IRAQ"

Q.This has been a beneficial year for Iran in Latin America:
Visits to Nicaragua, Venezuela, Ecuador. A great year really?


A. It has been a very beneficial year, but more than
anything the world keeps getting smaller. It is very normal
that the authorities of countries travel to many parts of the
world, for the diversification of international relations.
We have not come to Latin America only to make our country
known, but we have also invited the Latin America officials
to come and visit us. Right now in fact, there are two
seminars about Latin America being given in Teheran, one
about economics and another about cultural and political
relations.


Q. Iran recently established a relationship with Daniel
Ortega, who says he shares with you the year of your
"independence."


A. That is correct, the Iranian revolution took place the
same year of the victory of the Sandinistas, but before that,
even before Ortega took the power, we have had bilateral
relations with Nicaragua. I have traveled many times to
Nicaragua, since I am the accredited Ambassador. But when
the Commander Daniel Ortega won, he invited our president to
the swearing in ceremony. Mr. Calderon also invited our
president, as well as the President of Ecuador.


Q. The only difference is that the Iranian President did not
go to Calderon,s ceremony.


A. It's because the situation (after Calderon,s victory)
was not very stable, that is why the visit did not take
place, but in the other countries, it did.


Q. The Iranian President, during his visit to Nicaragua,
declared that Nicaragua and Iran were joined by a "common
enemy." If that was referring to the United States, do Iran
and the rest of the leftist governments in Latin America, who
are against Washington, have possibilities of forming
increasingly close relations?


A. Regarding the common enemy, you may ask Mr. Ahmadinejad
and Mr. Ortega about it. I was present in that meeting (in
Nicaragua) and the two presidents talked about economic
issues, and above all, about the well-being of the two
countries. We do not consider the United States to be our
enemy, but we do have a lot of differences in several
aspects.


Q. Compared with your president, you are very diplomatic.


A. Ha, ha, ha. We,re looking for the development and the
expansion of the relations, not to destroy them.


Q. When President Ahmadinejad makes a tour in Latin America,
he visits Venezuela, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Cuba, and he sees
President Evo Morales. There are a few doubts that the allies
of Iran are the leftist governments.


A. Currently, the ideology is not really considered in the
region. I think it is better to call them the independentist
countries, rather than leftists. You may consider all those
countries to be leftist, but how would you define the
government of Lula, or Argentina, Chile? All of them
apparently are leftist governments, but what they really seek
is their independence. We, as we have the same ideas of not
accepting the force, have something in common with those
countries.


Q. You say that they are countries that seek their
independence. What country in Latin America, according to
you, does not seek its independence.


A. Naturally, they all seek their independence, but this
depends on what type of relationship they establish with the
great powers. Before, the governments of the region arrived
at decisions dictated by the great powers, but now all arrive
in power via popular elections. For us this is very
respectable. In other aspects, from a commercial point of
view, we consider Latin America to be a big market, and we
want to have something to do with this market. President
Ahmadinejad had to pass a good deal of time to be able to
achieve stability in his environment, and now that he has
achieved it, he's decided to travel, now that there is so
much noise being made about our country in other parts of the
world. The travel of our president is within this framework,
that is to find relations with other countries.


Q. I want to describe some aspects of El Salvador: It is
the only country in Latin America that has troops in Iraq,
with a government that has criticized some postures of
President Ahmadinejad and that with near certainty will vote
against the enrichment of uranium in Iran at the UN. Could
your government establish relations with El Salvador under
these terms?


A. We would like that those governing El Salvador have a
realistic perception about Iran. You yourself note that El
Salvador would vote against Iran in any resolution that has
to do with uranium enrichment. This shows that the content
of the resolution is not important to El Salvador, that if it
has anything to do with Iran, El Salvador votes against us,
and we consider that an unrealistic perception. If El
Salvador wants to see things as they actually are, it should
know that with respect to our nuclear program, everything is
based upon our membership with the IAEA. Everything we are
doing is within the terms of Article 4 of the Protocol of the
IAEA. This article mentions that the countries who are
members of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty can perform
uranium enrichment activities. Moreover, we allow
international inspectors to come and we leave them free to do
what they want. I think that the authorities of El Salvador
should reconsider their decision about Iran. But our problem
is a lot bigger than what El Salvador might think about these
international topics. I am making a considerate invitation
for the authorities of El Salvador to travel to Iran, so that
they can see the type of people we have, so that they might
change their opinions.

Q. Do you think El Salvador acts like it does because it
hates Iran, or because it follows the United States?


A. My answer is in your questions, it's very obvious.


Q. So are the leftist governments the natural allies of Iran
in Latin America?


A. One could think that it's like that. It's just that I
don't view them in terms of "leftist." My question is, what
interest does El Salvador have sending troops to Iraq,
against UN resolutions? Let's suppose that later another
government is formed in Iraq. What will El Salvador gain? A
better way of putting it is that I think the Government of El
Salvador must respond to its people and explain why this is
in their interests. Why do all those young Salvadorans go
from a small country to look for war and death in Iraq?


Q. Recently the Palestinian Ambassador in Mexico told the
magazine "Enfoques" that the fact El Salvador has troops in
Iraq causes the country to have a negative perception in the
rest of the Arab World. And you all? Do you see El Salvador
in this way?


A. Naturally.


Q. Does it bother Iran that Salvadoran troops are in Iraq?


A. I'm going to answer you with a Persian saying, and I hope
that you don't take it the wrong way. On the branch of a
very old and large tree, a little bird arrives to perch.
When the bird is about to take off, it says to the tree,
"Take care, I'm going to take off flying." The tree answers,
"I didn't even realize you were there." I repeat,
what role could El Salvador possibly have? What role can El
Salvador have if all their arms are provided by another
country that calls when it needs something but turns its back
when it doesn't. This is a question the people of El
Salvador must formulate: "Why are we fighting in Iraq?" We
were enemies of Saddam and we had a war with him, because we
have 1,200 kilometers of common border and we didn't want
Saddam to be in power there, but you all are very far away
from Iraq, you can't have any interests there. The
Salvadorans in combat are fighting for someone else. They
are in a war that was not approved of by the UN, nor by the
people of the world.


Q. You speak of how small El Salvador is, of how little it
interests Iran, but Nicaragua is almost as small and even
poorer. Is Iran getting closer to Nicaragua just to have an
ally in international votes? Is Iran getting closer to
Nicaragua to confirm that's what the United States does to El
Salvador?


A. Yes that's true, but that's why we say that even El
Salvador could be a friend of Iran. Nicaragua is not the
only Latin American country with which we have (diplomatic)
relations: Argentina, Uruguay, Cuba. Currently there is
much stronger coming together of viewpoints between Nicaragua
and Iran, and for that reason we have a lot in common. They
invited us and we responded. Here again I want to re-iterate
my invitation for the Government of El Salvador to change its
viewpoint. We don't want the Government of El Salvador to
see things as we dictate, rather that they simply see reality
as it is.


Q. Doesn't it occur to you why El Salvador might be helping
in a war started by the United States?


A. That's my question. We know that the United States has
interests there, and Great Britain as well: they share an
interest in controlling the oil of the world, just as they
want to control Palestine. But El Salvador? People in Iraq
have never heard of El Salvador, they don't even know where
it is.


Q. Does it seem odd to you then that someone is interviewing
you about El Salvador?


A. Yes.


Q. I repeat: it's the only Latin American country with
troops in Iraq, the last to move its Embassy in Israel from
Jerusalem to Tel Aviv. Can Iran be friends with El Salvador?


A. El Salvador on its own is going to one day come to the
conclusion that its foreign policy is not good. The majority
of countries that sent troops to Iraq currently have
embassies in Tehran. I will tell you something else to clear
things up: with the United States we have some aspects in
common and some at odds. Our greatest enemy was Saddam, but
despite the fact that Saddam attacked us, and he did so for
eight years, even using chemical weapons, we weren't the ones
who attacked Iraq. Such an attack was not approved by the
UN, which is why we never did it. With respect to
Afghanistan, we even helped the Americans quite a bit in
their attack on the Taliban. That was because the UN had
approved the attack. We are very happy that Saddam is no
longer in power, and in this we have a common position with
El Salvador and the United States. Our hope is that a
government is established of Iraqis and that it is stable.
Our questions is: if Saddam is already dead, and Iraq
already has a government, what are foreign troops still doing
there? For how long will El Salvador be in Iraq? What kind
of government are they going to bring? With which groups is
El Salvador in contact with in Iraq? What groups in Iraq are
in favor of Salvadoran interests?


Q. El Salvador obtained this year more than USD 400 million
in cooperation assistance (referring to MCC) that up until a
year ago the U.S. was only giving to low income, not lower
middle income countries like El Salvador. There are many who
mention the troops present in Iraq as one of the reasons.


A. Evidently you don't think that El Salvador is fighting
over in Iraq for the cause of liberty, but rather for money.
This has another meaning in this war.


Q. You were speaking about the profound respect Iran has for
UN Resolutions. Nevertheless, this week the UN asked Iran
for the last time that it stop its enrichment of uranium, and
the President of Iran answered that even in the face of force
Iran would continue its program. A contradiction?


A. Yes its a contradiction. Nevertheless, the UN Resolution
is different from the Non-Proliferation Criteria. In Article
4, the IAEA is giving us the right to continue with uranium
enrichment. According to this article, we not only have a
right to have a nuclear program of uranium enrichment, but
also countries that have such technology are supposed to help
us. The topic of atomic energy in Iran is political, not
technical. The United States in the era of the Shah were the
ones that proposed to us starting an atomic energy program,
and trained our personnel to do so. The justification of the
United States was that one day oil was going to run out.
Thirty years later, the United States tells us that we have
plenty of petroleum and gas and that we don't need nuclear
energy. If enriching uranium is so bad for us, why isn't it
bad for everyone? The IAEA has confirmed that we have not
had nuclear tests. Our neighbors are not signatories to the
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, but they have nuclear arms,
and the United States helps them, while at the same time they
criticize us and ask us not to do so. What we are trying to
do is produce energy.

Q You say that El Salvador and the United States are in Iraq
against the will of the UN, yet you maintain your nuclear
program against the will of the UN. Is this violating what
the UN orders a game that everyone plays?


A. That's it, that's it, you're a real diplomat. And what
we want is not to involve ourselves very much in this game.
We don't accept the resolution because we consider it a
political game.


Q. Even so, are you willing to engage in violence to defend
your program?


A. What we are willing to do is engage in dialogue. We have
proposed such dialogue on various occasions. There isn't any
problem that doesn't have a negotiable solution, but we will
not accept a precondition, or any condition laid out in
advance, in order to sit down and talk.


3. (C) COMMENT: The GOES has on various occasions
expressed their concern about Iranian intentions in the
region, and expressed what they feel is a vulnerability based
on their deployment of the Cuscatlan Battalion. El Salvador
has made efforts for more engagement in the Arab World in the
past year, moving its Israeli embassy from Jerusalem to Tel
Aviv and opening diplomatic relations with a number of Arab
countries. Mid-level MFA contacts told poloff they found it
disconcerting that an Iranian Ambassador would speak at such
length about El Salvador.
Glazer