Psywar no solution to Iran-P5+1 talks

The comprehensive talks between Iran and the six world powers require good faith from the group, but those countries have been waging psychological warfare against Iran, political scientist Kaveh Afrasiabi says.

“We need to see good faith before the talks… Unfortunately we have not seen that because there has been a great deal of psychological warfare conducted against Iran,” author and political scientist Kaveh Afrasiabi told Press TV on Sunday.

“The US has to show a great deal more flexibility and spirit of compromise for these talks to bear any fruit,” he added.

Commenting on the recent documents released by the WikiLeaks website that alleged that certain Persian Gulf states have a hostile stance toward Iran, Afrasiabi said that this questionable material has poisoned the climate before the talks.

A part of the documents released by the website claimed that Saudi Arabia “frequently” exhorted the US to attack Iran to set back its nuclear program.

The questionable documents allege that the leaders of the Persian Gulf states of Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates, along with the Israeli regime, also regard Tehran’s peaceful nuclear program as an existential threat and have thus urged a US attack on Iran.

“We really need to stay away from this information and from this kind of counterproductive psychological warfare against Iran, which has poisoned the climate, and (we need to) see real signs of good faith in negotiation,” he stated.

On Monday, a new round of comprehensive talks between Iran and the P5+1 group — France, Russia, the United States, China, Britain, and Germany — began in the Swiss city of Geneva after the West agreed to return to the negotiating table.

The talks stalled in October 2009, after the Vienna Group — France, Russia, the US, and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) — tried to pressure Iran to ship most of its low-enriched uranium out of the country in exchange for reactor fuel from potential suppliers such as Russia and France.

When the West refused to provide concrete guarantees that Iran would receive the fuel in due time, Iran, Turkey, and Brazil drafted the Tehran Declaration.

The foreign ministers of Iran, Turkey, and Brazil signed a declaration in Tehran on May 17, according to which Iran would ship 1200 kilograms of its low-enriched uranium to Turkey to be exchanged for 120 kilograms of 20 percent enriched nuclear fuel rods to power the Tehran research reactor, which produces radioisotopes for cancer treatment.

The nuclear declaration gives Iran a guarantee since the low-enriched uranium would be stored in Turkey and would be returned if Iran does not receive the 20 percent enriched nuclear fuel within one year.

On the last day of November, Tehran agreed that Geneva would be the venue of the talks with the P5+1 group.

Iran has made it clear that the comprehensive talks with the P5+1 group will not include the nuclear issue since the case has been resolved.

However, the Islamic Republic has announced that it will negotiate on the issue of a nuclear fuel swap with the Vienna group within the framework of the Tehran Declaration.