WarSclerotic

WASHINGTON — Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister and chief negotiator on his country’s controversial nuclear program, accused Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu of attempting to “deceive” the international community in order to avert a deal that would end the nuclear standoff.

In an interview that aired Sunday, Zarif told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria that it was “audacious” for Israel– a country with “a clandestine nuclear weapons program” and only one of three states that has refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty– to accuse Iran of weaponizing its program.

“We won’t have a bomb, because we don’t see it in our interest,” Zarif said. “He’s been lying. He continues to lie. He’s in fact investing in continuing fear.”

As he cast Netanyahu’s position, Zarif also outlined what Iran’s foreign ministry may consider the parameters of a deal.

“Why is it that he’s worried about a deal where the international community can monitor Iran’s nuclear program,” Zarif said, “and make sure it is never weaponized?”

In Tehran over the past several days, the Iranian regime has been responding with mixed messages to a series of gestures during the United Nations General Assembly, widely seen as progress toward a swift negotiations process in the West.

For the first time since the Iranian Revolution of 1979, the leaders of the United States and Iran spoke directly, and their chief diplomats– represented by Zaire and Secretary of State John Kerry– met in person privately without aides.

But Netanyahu’s speech just days later was an attempt to unsheathe the government of Iranian president Hassan Rouhani, who won election based on the promise of relief from a devastating sanctions regimen led by the US president and internationally enforced.

Netanyahu and Obama met at the White House before the Israeli leader’s UN address, and made joint comments that Zarif called “disappointing” language “insulting to the Iranian people.”

“What we have done in the past ten years has not benefited the P5+1,” Zarif said, adding, “it has not benefited Iran.”

Zarif characterized the sanctions as “very serious,” and said he considers their breadth a result of a decades-old standoff rooted in mistrust between Iran and the US. He also said, on the other hand, that the same mistrust has led to the installation of over 18,000 centrifuges across Iran, used to enrich uranium.

He said that the US advised Iran before the 1979 revolution to diversify its energy supply, and that its nuclear program achieves that aim for “environmental and sustainable development” purposes.

“The IAEA has not been able to find a single evidence… that Iran has diverted its activities into non-peaceful operations,” Zarif added.

Zarif also called on world powers negotiating with Tehran over its disputed nuclear program to come up with new proposals before talks in Geneva on October 15-16.

“The previous P5+1 plan given to Iran belongs to history and they must enter talks with a new point of view,” Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in an interview with Iranian state television late on Saturday.

“The players must put away this illusion that they can impose anything on the Iranian people.”

The United States wants Iran to respond to proposals by world powers in February as a starting point for talks. If the parties cannot agree on how to start the negotiations, it casts doubt on whether a resolution can be agreed within the six months in which Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says he wants a deal.

Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States – the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council – plus Germany, the so-called P5+1, said in February they want Iran to stop enrichment of uranium to 20 percent, ship out some stockpiles and shutter a facility where such enrichment is done.

In return, they offered relaxation of international sanctions on Iran’s petrochemicals and trade in gold and other precious metals.

US officials said last week Secretary of State John Kerry had secured agreement from his Chinese counterpart calling for Iran to respond positively to existing nuclear proposals by the six powers.

According to Zarif, “Iranian people have completely lost their confidence in the West,” he added that the coming nuclear talks “could be a good start” for reversing that sentiment, ISNA cited the minister as saying.

“The West should deal seriously with the Iranian nuclear issue and that requires it to change its views,” Zarif added.

The election of Rouhani in June and his appointment of US-educated Zarif as foreign minister and chief nuclear negotiator have raised hopes for a solution to the decade-old dispute over Iran’s nuclear program.

Western powers believe Iranian enrichment activities are aimed at achieving nuclear weapons capability, whereas Iran insists its program is purely for civilian purposes – generating electricity and for a medical research reactor.

Reuters and JPost.com Staff contributed to this report.