I want to add another point. When the Americans target something in their relations with a certain government and country and when they want to reach their goal by exerting pressure, pressure works as a strategy for them, but as well as this strategy, they have a tactic which is negotiations. They exert pressure to exhaust the other side. When they feel that the other side is exhausted and might accept their terms, they say, “Very well, let us negotiate.” Negotiations complement their pressures.
The purpose of the negotiations is to reap, yield and obtain the fruits of their pressures. This is the purpose of negotiating. They exert pressure and when the other side is exhausted and feels that he has no other choice, they say, “Very well, let us negotiate.” And they sit at the negotiating table. They wish to establish and obtain what they have prepared through the pressures. This is the nature of negotiating with the US. Its strategy is not to negotiate. Its strategy is to exert pressure and negotiations are a subset of those pressures.
And the way to confront this strategy is only one thing and that is: if the other side has an instrument to exert pressure, he should use it. This is the only way. If he uses that instrument, then he can stop the other side or he can decrease or stop their pressures provided that they use their instruments. However, if this does not happen and if he is deceived by the invitation to negotiate and says to himself, “Now that he wants to negotiate, there is no need for me to use my instruments of exerting pressure which are available to me. Why should I do so? Let us negotiate”, if he is deceived by this, he has slipped and he will be ruined. In other words, defeat will be definite.
This is the only way. We have instruments to exert pressure in the face of the pressures of the US. Unlike what they want to say and promote, these pressure instruments are not military weapons and the like. If need be, we will use those weapons for sure, but what we mean by these instruments is not this. We have other means of exerting pressure. The measure that was recently adopted and announced by the Supreme National Security Council is one of the pressure instruments. They said, “now that you are behaving like this and now that the Europeans are not fulfilling their obligations, we will not fulfil ours in certain areas and within a certain scope”.
This means that we too will not abide by our obligations. This was a correct move. The move was the correct one. This is one of the ways. When you fail to utilize your pressure instruments and pivots, the other side will rest assured and he will not be in a rush. He will keep delaying the matter because he knows that he will not be at a disadvantage. However, if you manage to use your pressure instruments, he will have to do something.
Our scientific and technological capabilities are massive in the area of nuclear matters. We are not after nuclear weapons either: not because of the US and the sanctions, rather because of our foundations. Our foundational beliefs do not permit us to build weapons of mass destruction such as atomic and chemical weapons and the like. These are religiously haraam. Some individuals said to us, “Have them built, but do not use them.” No, this is wrong as well. Because if we produce them, we will have undergone heavy expenditures while we cannot use them in any way.
And when the other side knows that we are not going to use them, this is like not having them. It makes no difference. Therefore, when we are not going to use them, producing such weapons is not logical and reasonable. So, we are opposed to this in essence. Our Fiqhi, religious and Shar’i foundation is this. We are not after such weapons, but we need nuclear enrichment. Today, this need might not be felt tangibly, but in ten years’ time, it will definitely be tangible.
If we do not prepare ourselves and if we do not increase the capabilities of the country in this regard, we will have to start from point zero in ten years. This is our logic. Therefore, we can utilize these capabilities and we can strengthen them. These are our pressure instruments because they can stop the other side. So, the idea to negotiate today is not correct.