SPIEGEL:

According to western news services and preliminary findings of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna the suspicion exists that Iran is not working exclusively on the peaceful use of nuclear energy. When will Teheran have its first atomic bomb?

Salehi: Since our delegation has only recently returned from a meeting with our religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, I can assure you that a source at the highest level, so to speak, says we are not striving to become an atomic power. Weapons of mass destruction have no place in our religious thinking.

SPIEGEL: That doesn't seem to have kept your country from clandestinely starting production of the basic materials necessary for a bomb. At least the inspectors of the IAEA have found traces of enriched uranium in the nuclear plant near Natanz.

Salehi: It is true that we have begun research leading to the production of enriched uranium. This is being done under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency, whose inspectors have been pursuing their task for some time in Iran.

SPIEGEL: This finding has greatly alarmed the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed El Baradei.

Salehi: We completely understand his concern. But we couldn't have produced such highly enriched material because of our limited technical capabilities. The uranium must have been found in a part of the plant we bought from a previous owner, and which was used before.

SPIEGEL: Iran's credibility isn't actually improved by the fact that it acknowledged the existence of the nuclear plant only after it was detected by satellites.

Salehi: We made no secret about Natanz. Two months before it all became public knowledge in August last year, I informed Director General Baradei of our intentions.

SPIEGEL: But without mentioning its location in Natanz.

Salehi: That is true. But I did not have authorization from Teheran to do that. And moreover, we were not obligated to do it. The deadline for notification after such a plant has been started is 180 days. And we kept to that. If we had announced it before then, perhaps this controversy would not have arisen.

SPIEGEL: Iran kept the IAEA in the dark about its nuclear activities not only with regard to Natanz.

Salehi: Even if we did leave out a few things, for instance in statements about our experiments in transforming uranium or about its importation, we still tried to deliver all the information. Moreover, we know that there are quite a few countries that have made similar mistakes in listing and processing radioactive materials.

SPIEGEL: Well, what explanation do you have for Teheran's refusal, even now, to give inspectors access to certain installations and to deny them permission to withdraw samples?

Salehi: Being in favor of inspections doesn't mean that we will stand there with our hands raised above our heads and tolerate anything. Of course we resisted when the IAEA wanted to inspect a factory near Teheran that isn't being run as a nuclear installation.

SPIEGEL: Did you want to gain time to remove nuclear residues?

Salehi: That is what American politicians claim. But you can't wipe away radioactive traces like ordinary dust. We have nothing to hide from the inspectors.

SPIEGEL: Then you are going to sign the supplementary resolution to the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Atomic Weapons. In doing so you would accept the strict control mechanisms that it sets up.

Salehi: We have been working for two months in Teheran so that we can consensually take this step - successfully. Thus I have already informed the Director General of the IAEA of my government's readiness to begin negotiations leading to our signing it shortly.

SPIEGEL: The International Atomic Energy Agency is pressuring Teheran to sign promptly and unconditionally. What is there to haggle over?

Salehi: We want to make sure that we won't constantly be confronted with new demands. Only last Tuesday, for example, Canada's representative to the IAEA claimed that signing the supplementary resolution was not enough. We won't let ourselves be treated like that.

SPIEGEL: The United States is taking a much tougher stance. Washington would like to prevent Teheran from any and all processing of enriched uranium.

Salehi: We shall never accept that. We too have a right to the peaceful use of atomic energy, and the enrichment of uranium is essential for that. If that's the new line of approach, we shall take appropriate measures.

SPIEGEL: Is that a threat?

Salehi: No. We only want to exercise our rights and defend our sovereignty.

SPIEGEL: So, what would be your next step?

Salehi: First, we could limit our cooperation with the IAEA to the minimum level to which we have obligated ourselves. We could also completely end cooperation. And as a last resort I don't want to exclude the possibility that we might pull out of the Nonproliferation Treaty. We want to resolve the conflict quickly and peacefully so that the worst does not happen.

SPIEGEL: Teheran has annoyed even well disposed countries like France and Germany with its hard-line position. They, too, are now pushing for your signing of the resolution by the end of October.

Salehi: An ultimatum like that does not get us anywhere, on the contrary. We won't let Europe force anything on us either.

SPIEGEL: For the time being the nuclear disagreement has kept Teheran from any further negotiations for a trade agreement in Brussels, something Iran's economy is in urgent need of. Can your exhausted country afford an intensification of the conflict?

Salehi: Do not underestimate the strength of our people. For almost 25 years we have been forced to be independent and largely isolated from the West because of the embargo imposed on us by the U.S. It wouldn't frighten us if Washington were to carry the conflict into the UN Security Council and have international sanctions imposed on us. We are well prepared in every respect, politically as well as economically.

SPIEGEL: Conservative circles in Teheran are allegedly longing for this conflict because they expect to gain advantages from it in their power struggle with the reformers.

Salehi: In Iran it is believed that signing the resolution would be the wrong thing to do. But in the interest of our nation we want to do away with all differences of opinion.

SPIEGEL: The religious leader Ayatollah Khamenei has reportedly come out against signing it.

Salehi: If that were so, we would not have to negotiate any longer. But actually we are working to convince all parties that ratification of the supplementary resolution is the right way to go - although not at any cost.