Former Iranian Diplomat Mohammad Javad Larijani, Brother of Top Iranian Nuclear Negotiator: We Are Interested in Nuclear Cooperation with Arab and Muslim Countries; the Americans Will Need Our Assistance to Withdraw from Iraq

Following are excerpts from an interview with Mohammad Javad Larijani, Director of the Iranian Institution for Theoretical Physics and Mathematics (IPM), which aired on Channel 2, Iranian TV, on May 30, 2006,

Mohammad Javad Larijani: We have attained considerable knowledge and industrial capabilities in the nuclear field. We are interested in cooperating, within the framework of the law, with the countries that are NPT members - especially with the Muslim countries among them. What's wrong with Egypt obtaining this capability? What's wrong with Saudi Arabia or Iraq obtaining this capability? What's wrong with Algeria obtaining this capability? We will be proud if the Islamic world attains this knowledge and technology. Is the blood of the French, the German, or the Japanese any redder than that of the people of the Islamic world?

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We oppose the West's efforts to gain a monopoly in nuclear fuel, and in nuclear industry and science. I believe that the Iranian success is a great success for the Islamic world. Even other countries - Brazil, Venezuela, and so on - stand to gain from the Iranian resistance.

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As someone whose job includes monitoring political affairs worldwide, I must say that the future of the American military presence in Afghanistan and Iraq will be no better than the fate of the Soviet forces sent to Afghanistan. Sooner or later they must reach this realization.

We helped the former USSR reach this conclusion. We even helped the Soviets when they were leaving Afghanistan. I went to Moscow in the days of Imam [Khomeini] to conduct negotiations. At that time, the Soviets had provided Iraq with many missiles, and I went to tell them that these missiles would not bring our people to their knees, but would harm the Soviet status in the region.

We discussed Afghanistan. Gromyko had just been appointed president. He asked me to help them leave Kabul without bloodshed. When they were leaving Kabul, the Soviet ambassador was trembling with fear in front of the embassy. We recommended to our friends - Ahmad Shah Masoud and others - that they let them leave in a dignified manner, without bloodshed. As for an American withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan, a similar fate awaits it sooner or later. Our role is by no means to harm anyone's dignity. However, when the day comes, they will need us, in order to avoid leaving in a undignified manner.