Transcript E&OE
19 June 2009
Interview with Sky News
Subjects: Protests in Iran; New Zealand announcement on whaling.
REPORTER: Mr Smith, thanks for your time today. Before we ask you about the agreement with New Zealand on the non-lethal whaling research, I want to ask you about the latest protests in Iran, a sixth straight day after the election results there.
There's nothing the international community can do about this except sit back and watch, is there?
STEPHEN SMITH: I wouldn't say that the international community is sitting back and just watching. Of course, we're putting our views to Iran publicly and also privately through our officials and I restate the Australian Government's view which is that we want to see the election result in Iran reflect the will of the Iranian people. Where there has been protest, we of course want those protests to be peaceful and not to be met with hostility or repression.
And we welcome the fact that whilst there have been some terrible incidents and some tragic deaths, that in recent times those protests have been peaceful and peacefully received. And we welcome that there has been a commitment to a limited recount and also discussion between the defeated candidates and the so-called Guardians Council coming up in the next few days.
REPORTER: There are reports though of a massacre at Tehran University over the last day or so, five people killed, apparently according to reports that we're hearing and seeing. Have you heard anything about that? Have you got any official channels of advice on that?
STEPHEN SMITH: No. We've seen those reports as well, but I'm not in a position to confirm them one way or the other. And of course we are concerned about a range of things: concerned about the fact that foreign journalists are being, or have been, excluded from the country; what appear to be efforts at censorship and the like. So that is a very, very worrying.
I think there are three essential worries here: one is the election reflecting the will of the people; the second is Iran's authorities respecting human rights and the rights for protest; but thirdly, and importantly, irrespective of the outcome of all these issues and matters, the point I've made repeatedly is that whoever emerges, whether it's President Ahmadinejad or anyone else, Iran needs to change its policy and that includes not just the Iranian Government, but also the attitude of the so-called Supreme Leader and the so-called Governing Council...
REPORTER: Yeah, because the Supreme Leader is going to be giving his sermon, his words at the Friday prayers; this is going to dictate a lot of what happens next, isn't it?
STEPHEN SMITH: It's certainly a contribution and a speech that we are waiting with very much interest, as is the international community.
But to complete the earlier point, it's particularly on the nuclear program front that Iran needs to change its policy and bring itself under the supervision of the international community. We've seen Iran, sort of, retreat into isolationism, retreat and not respond to the resolutions of the Security Council or the determinations of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and it's that that Iran needs to respond to. And in the shorter term, it also needs to respond positively and favourably to the olive branch of dialogue that the new United States Obama Administration has put out to it.
REPORTER: Well, the opposition candidate, the person that's really been at the head of the protest, Mir Hossein Mousavi, was reportedly also, you know, the Prime Minister - he was the Prime Minister during the first part of the Iranian Revolution - but also involved in the establishment of the nuclear program. So that's - there's no dramatic shift in the overall policy, is there?
STEPHEN SMITH: This goes to the point that Australia has been making, which is whilst, of course, we have very serious concerns about the election process and the handling of protests, in the end, whoever emerges, whether it's President Ahmadinejad, whether it's Mr Mousavi, what is required is a change of policy approach, particularly on the nuclear front, particularly on engagement with the international community and particularly on a response to the United States Administration's overtures of a dialogue bringing Iran back into the mainstream international community.
So your point is, if you like, an aspect of the fundamental point that Australia's been making for some time.
REPORTER: Okay, just finally, you're in New Zealand. And you've just signed an agreement with the New Zealand Government on a non-lethal whaling research program, non-lethal whale research facility in the southern oceans.
Talk us through exactly what is involved in this. And isn't this about putting pressure on Japan ahead of next week's International Whaling Commission meeting.
STEPHEN SMITH: It does all of those three things. Firstly, you know, we have a very close and productive and comprehensive relationship with New Zealand. It's our closest and most comprehensive relationship.
We work very closely on a range of areas. And this is one example of that. We've got an agreement with New Zealand where a New Zealand research vessel will, for a six week period, conduct research on whaling in the Great Southern Oceans. And we'll do that together. It does make the point in advance of the IWC that you can do research into whales and whaling without killing them.
The Japanese assert that they conduct research. We have in the past made the point that we suspect that is just the cover to commercial whaling. So we're making that point in advance of the IWC meeting in Portugal next week, and we continue to use that and our bilateral relationship with Japan to put diplomatic pressure on Japan to cease whaling in the Southern Oceans. That is our objective and that is what we want.
REPORTER: But nothing has worked thus far with Japan. And nothing, no tactics, nothing has stopped them from doing it.
STEPHEN SMITH: We continue to press that point with Japan, we continue to pursue our diplomatic endeavours both bilaterally with them, but also multilaterally - particularly through the IWC.
And we also continue to make the point that if we get to the stage where we think our diplomatic efforts have been exhausted and we haven't achieved our objective, then we continue to leave open the possibility and the prospect of international legal action, either before the International Court of Justice, or the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.
REPORTER: Stephen Smith from New Zealand, appreciate your time. Thank you.
[Ends]
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