Iranian nuclear negotiator Deputy Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi spoke to the Iranian journal Diplomat Monthly about the nuclear negotiations and the different circumstances facing the last three administrations in Iran. The news website Entekhab selected some key passages from the interview that shed light on how Iran changed its tactics in its nuclear program and the negotiations during the last three Iranian administrations.

Discussing the 2003 Saadabad agreement and later the 2004 Paris agreement between Iran and the so-called EU3 (Britain, France and Germany), Araghchi said, “When the nuclear controversy began, Iran decided to enter negotiations with the three European countries. The situation at that time was that apparently America was after another war in the region and the Europeans came forward and in their own beliefs to stop a new war.” Mohammad Khatami was president at the time, and Hassan Rouhani was one of the key Iranian figures to negotiate the deal.

During Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s presidency, Saeed Jalili headed nuclear policy. “Ahmadinejad entered the scene with new forces to consolidate the system’s policy that we have to push forward the nuclear program in consideration of the probable sanctions [they will cause],” Araghchi said. By “the system” Araghchi means the Iranian state as a whole, including elected and unelected centers of power. Araghchi continued, “The system decided that it wanted to become nuclear and to pay the costs of it.”

With regard to the EU3 agreement, Araghchi said, “We suspended our activities for approximately three years in order not to pay the costs of the UNSC [United Nations Security Council] resolutions. But we reached the result that this wouldn't work. So we decided to become nuclear and defend our peaceful nuclear rights.”