Iran guarantees the world that its nuclear development is peaceful
• Affirms president of the Iranian Parliament

BY ELSON CONCEPCION PEREZ—Granma daily staff writer—

IN an exclusive with Granma and Cuban Television, Dr. Gholam Ali Addad Adel, president of the Iranian Parliament, affirmed that he was grateful for this interview in order to greet the Cuban people, friends of the Iranian people, because they have great respect for the Revolution and its leader Fidel Castro.

Iran’s great achievement has been that of cutting its dependency on the big powers and motivating the people towards progress and development in an environment of self-confidence that we ourselves can lead and administer our country.

Our people are participants in the political scenario. Although the international media has not reflected this Iranian reality, the people support and participate in that process of solid democracy.

There is the people who elect their own deputies. The president and even experts who, in their turn, elect the leader of the Islamic Revolution.

We have made great advances in the spheres of education, culture and science. The number of books published annually has multiplied 30 times over these years. The number of university students is 30 times higher. There is educational coverage for almost all the country’s children. Women’s access to higher education has been opened up and currently 63% of the 2.5 million university students are women. In Iran the way equally open to women to aspire to leadership posts. There are currently 12 women deputies in Parliament. We have various female vice presidents of the Republic.

They are developing political, educational and cultural labors. In the case of the young people, they are the principal protagonists of Iranian society, a young society given the age of the population.

One notable advance is the access of young scientists to the development of nuclear energy for peaceful ends.

Moreover, we have had very good results in medicine and health. There have been heart, kidney and lung transplants.

In agriculture we are close to self-sufficient in production. At the beginning of the Islamic Revolution we imported close to 80% of foodstuffs, the current figure is just 8%.

We have changed from a wheat-importing country to an exporter of that grain, with an annual production of 14 million tons.

This is a question that we are putting to the western countries. We have asked them what we have to do so that they do feel sure that Iran will only make pacific use of that energy.

Iran has done everything demanded of it by the IAEA and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

As a final proposal, our president has invited the western countries to take part in enriched uranium activities in Iran.

We are disposed to give any guarantee in respect of the atomic energy to be produced by Iran.

The sole exception is that this guarantee cannot deprive us of our right to enrich uranium and produce nuclear energy for pacific ends.

The West sees the only guarantee as being Iran giving up the development of that energy. In our opinion, this is equivalent to the bankruptcy of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

We praise Cuba’s resistance to imperialism. We are disposed to developing wide political, economic and cultural relations with Cuba, and hope that the Cuban people will continue highly valuing their Revolution and do not yield in the face of imperialist conspiracies.

Moreover, I would say to the Cuban people that the road taken here 47 years ago is now being taken by almost all the peoples of Latin America. Thus the Revolution made by Cuba is bearing fruit in other nations. We are fully disposed to develop economic relations between the two countries.

To date, the Iranian Parliament has agreed to various cooperative conventions with Cuba. There is no obstacle in expanding relations with Cuba within the Iranian Parliament or within the Iranian government.