Iran’s President brags about deceiving the West over nuclear program

September 22, 2013 9:47 pm By Robert Spencer

 

“War is deceit,” said Muhammad. But to take him at his word would be “Islamophobic.”


“VIDEO: Iranian president brags about deceiving the West,” by Reza Kahlili for the Daily Caller, September 22:

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has gone on a charm
offensive lately with multiple interviews with American media promising
collaboration, but a recent video shows he takes pride in deceiving the
West.


“Gone is the age of blood feuds,” Rouhani stated in an op-ed in the Washington Post. “World leaders are expected to lead in turning threats into opportunities,” he wrote in the Post Friday.


In interviews with ABC and NBC,
Rouhani said that Iran will never develop nuclear weapons and that he
has the authority to make a deal with the West. “In its nuclear program,
this government enters with full power and has complete authority,”
Rouhani said. “Under no circumstances would we seek any weapons of mass
destruction, including nuclear weapons, nor will we ever.”


Rouhani, who is one of the most trusted figures of the Islamic
regime’s supreme leader, has served the Islamic Republic at the highest
levels since the 1979 revolution. He has been the deputy speaker of
Parliament, the head of the Executive Committee of the High Council for
War Support during the Iran-Iraq War, the deputy to the
second-in-command of Iran’s joint chiefs of staff, a member of the
Expediency Council, a member of the Assembly of Experts (the body that
chooses the supreme leader), a former nuclear negotiator, and, most
importantly, the representative of the supreme leader to the Supreme
National Security Council since 1989.


Despite the recent charm offensive in the American media, a recently
revealed video of an interview prior to the June Iranian election shows
him bragging how he, in his role as Iran’s top nuclear negotiator,
deceived the West during negotiations on Iran’s illicit nuclear program
even as Iran expanded its nuclear power. At the same time, Rouhani
managed to relieve pressure by the West, especially in convincing the
Europeans to avert possible military aggression by the Bush
administration.


“The day that we invited the three European ministers [to the talks],
only 10 centrifuges were spinning at [the Iranian nuclear facility of]
Natanz,” Rouhani boasted on the tape. “We could not produce one gram of
U4 or U6 [uranium hexafluoride]. “¦ We did not have the heavy-water
production. We could not produce yellow cake. Our total production of
centrifuges inside the country was 150.”


But then Rowhani admitted in the video the purpose of prolonging
negotiations: “We wanted to complete all of these “” we needed time.”


He said the three European ministers promised to block U.S. efforts
to transfer the Iran nuclear dossier to the United Nations, using veto
power if necessary. He called Iran’s claim that it stopped its nuclear
program in 2003 a statement for the uneducated and admitted that the
program not only continued, but was significantly expanded under his
tenure.


While President George W. Bush was increasing pressure on Iran in 2007, a report by American intelligence agencies concluded that Iran halted its nuclear program in 2003 and that the program had remained frozen since.


In the interview, Rouhani said that after he took over the country”s
nuclear project, the country”s 150 centrifuges grew to over 1,700 by the
time he left the project.


Then Rouhani made his boldest statement: “We did not stop; we completed the program.”


He said that Iran’s nuclear activity was under the supervision of the
supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and that he, as Khamenei’s
representative, was to ensure this deceit….