Politics & Power Quote by Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani

Diplomacy here is framed as therapy: the West has “concerns,” Iran must “assure” them, and trust becomes the scarce resource that unlocks everything else. Rafsanjani’s phrasing is careful, almost legalistic, and that’s the point. He doesn’t promise abandonment of nuclear capability; he promises management of perception and anxiety around it. “Peaceful nature” signals continuity, not retreat: the program remains legitimate, sovereign, and ongoing. What changes is the story told about it and the mechanisms that make that story believable.

The subtext is a two-level negotiation. Externally, it’s a bid to re-enter the global economy without surrendering a national project that plays well domestically as a symbol of modernity and independence. Internally, it’s a reassurance to hardliners that the concession is rhetorical and procedural, not strategic. The key word is “diversion” rather than “development.” He’s implicitly defending enrichment and infrastructure as acceptable so long as they are fenced off from weaponization, which conveniently aligns with the ambiguity built into civilian nuclear capacity: the same technical ladder can point toward energy or toward deterrence, depending on politics.

Context matters. Rafsanjani was a pragmatic power-broker of the post-Iran-Iraq War era, repeatedly tasked with balancing ideology against economic survival. This line reads like the logic that would later animate verification-heavy agreements: accept intrusive confidence-building measures, not because the West deserves comfort, but because sanctions and isolation are costly. Trust is presented less as moral reconciliation than as a transactional instrument to neutralize pressure while preserving Iran’s right to a sophisticated nuclear industry.