IRAN WANTS CONGRATULATIONS, NOT CONDEMNATION OVER SECOND

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 RPO DUBAI 000393

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 9/28/2019
TAGS: PREL PROP PARM IR
SUBJECT: IRAN WANTS CONGRATULATIONS, NOT CONDEMNATION OVER SECOND
NUCLEAR SITE

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CLASSIFIED BY: Alan Eyre, Director, Iran Regional Presence
Office, Department of State.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)

1. (C) Summary: Iranian media and public statements by officials
have maintained the IRIG's official line that the IRIG has not
only not violated the NPT, but has gone beyond its IAEA
obligations in its early disclosure of the second uranium
enrichment facility near Qom. President Ahmadinejad, and the
head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization (AEOI) Ali Akbar
Salehi, IAEA Perm Rep Ali Asghar Soltanieh, and Majlis speaker
Ali Larijani have all been heavily quoted in asserting the
correctness of Iran's action and in discrediting Western claims
that Iran has been caught cheating, while an editorial in
hardline conservative daily Kayhan claimed Western allegations
were a ploy to increase pressure on Iran heading into
negotiations with the P5+1. Not surprisingly, the IRIG is
highlighting the correctness of its actions while accusing the
West of lacking goodwill on the eve of negotiations. End
summary.




2. (C) Initial Iranian reaction to September 25 Western press
reports of the existence of a second planned enrichment
facility seemed rushed, perhaps because the story broke on a
Friday, Iran's weekend. On early Friday afternoon Tehran time,
there were official Iranian press accounts of "an informed
official" confirming Western press accounts of this site. Late
r that afternoon the AEOI read a brief statement over the phone
from its President Ali Akbar Salehi to Iranian press confirming
that such a facility was being built "within the framework of
IAEA regulations," and congratulating Supreme Leader Khamenei
and the Iranian people for this latest step in the development
of Iran's nuclear industry.




3. (C) In the days following, Iranian press has given
significant coverage to the revelation that Iran is constructing
a second nuclear enrichment facility near Qom. The IRIG message
has been consistent: Iran has given the IAE notification of the
facility a year before it is required to do so, stressing its
interpretation that notification is not necessary until six
months before fissile material is introduced into the facility.
Since September 25, while Ahmadinejad was granting interviews in
New York, the IRIG's talking points have tracked closely with
Ahmadinejad's initial response to Western reporters' questions
over the facility's existence. MFA spokesman Hassan Qashqavi,
in his weekly press conference September 28, asserted that the
installation was "completely legal" and that allegations Iran
had been caught red handed were no more than propaganda. The
facility's purpose, Qashqavi said, was in keeping with the
peaceful purposes of Iran's nuclear program but was necessary to
"protect" Iran's achievements in developing nuclear technology.




4. (C) Salehi appeared on Iranian television news programs and
was quoted extensively by print and internet media as
highlighting Iran's transparency in providing notification to
the IAEA well before it was required and stressing that the site
was a part of Iran's peaceful nuclear energy program. Salehi
told news agency ISNA September 26 that Western claims that the
Iranians had tried to hide the facility were lies meant to
deceive world opinion about the peaceful nature of Iran's
program. In a television interview September 27, Salehi
repeated earlier statements that the facility, when it was
operational, would not enrich uranium above five percent level
needed for nuclear power generation. He said that the facility
was intended as a backup for the work already begun at Natanz.
He, along with IAEA Perm Rep Soltanieh, have stressed that the
IAEA has "officially thanked" the IRIG for its disclosure of the
site.




5. (C) In a September 27 interview with ISNA Secretary of the
National Security Council Saeed Jalili, warned that the US,
France and Britain, in their manner of announcing the facility's
existence, threatened to repeat previous mistakes in attempting
to negotiate with Iran. Jalili said the allegations were a
repetition of the 'carrot and stick' approach that sought to
pressure Iran into suspending its enrichment program. Jalili
added that Iran's disclosure had been a act of transparency to
show goodwill on the verge of negotiations. Likewise, Majlis
Speaker Ali Larijani in an September 27 interview said that
despite repeated Western allegations against Iran, it remained
ready for negotiations. The West sought continuously to impose
its will on Iran, and knowing that it could not, now sought to

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create suspicion over Iran's actions.




6. (C),In a September 27 editorial hardline conservative
daily Kayhan dismissed claims that Western intelligence agencies
had detected the site and forced Iran to acknowledge its
existence. To the contrary, Kayhan wrote, Iran had voluntarily
notified the IAEA, and now Western powers sought to use Iran's
good faith for leverage in the upcoming negotiations.




7. (C) Comment: Statements by Iranian officials concerning
Western press accounts of its second enrichment site are all 'on
message' and reflect the talking points that Iran disclosed this
facility long before it had to under its IAEA obligations, and
that Iran is surprised by Western mis-character ization of
Iran's motivations and actions, which it takes as further
evidence of a lack of goodwill on behalf of the West.
EYRE