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Barbara Slavin in Al-Monitor - Iran's UN Envoy: We Will Not Initiate Confrontation

July 12, 2012
Khazaee speaks with Ahmadinejad

Barbara Slavin, Atlantic Council senior fellow with the South Asia Center, co-authored a piece with Laura Rozen in Al-Monitor which features an interview with Iran's Ambassador to the UN.

Excerpt below. Full story at Al-Monitor.

Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations Mohammad Khazaee said Tuesday (July 10) that Iran will not take actions that would escalate confrontation with the West and criticized the international proposal in nuclear negotiations as tentative and vague.

In an exclusive and wide-ranging interview with Al-Monitor at Iran’s UN mission in New York, Khazaee said Iran would not “initiate any provocative steps” such as undertaking higher level enrichment or closing the Strait of Hormuz, despite the imposition on July 1 of draconian new sanctions and little progress to date towards an agreement in talks with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany.

“We will react if there is any provocative act from the other side,” Khazaee said. “We will not initiate any provocative steps.”

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